Hi everyone, we have another update for the beta branch today, but this time it's a little different!

There are of course new recipes, skills, etc., but the focus is on the Other game modes tab.

Behind this, there are currently two things: [olist]

Custom unranked games that allow you to queue against a ranking bracket of your choosing and select custom rules.

The option to create or join lobbies. [/olist] Of course, this is also a nice place where more custom modes could find their home in the future.

What lobbies are

Lobbies are designed as a mode to play with a friend or many friends at a time! You open a lobby by selecting Host lobby which will generate a 6-letter lobby code. Your friends can then join by pressing Join Lobby and entering that code. All players will play at the same time, with a timer (configurable at the start) ending the shop phase. You will then be matched against one of the other lobby members. Your goal is to win as many rounds out of 18 as possible.

What lobbies are not

Lobbies are not planned to become a public mode where anybody can join, this also means it will not be ranked.

The future

Currently there are 3 types of custom rules that can be enabled for unranked games - there are lots of opportunities to expand on that. We would love to hear your ideas for interesting custom rules as well. We also work on making custom rules possible in lobbies soon!

The Beta Branch

We have instructions on how to join the branch on our Discord server. Please keep in mind that the goal of the beta branch is to find bugs and issues! (And this is a huge feature, so expect many hotfixes!) The update is planned to go live on December 20th, coming with balancing changes.

A look behind the scenes

We have been working on the lobbies behind the scenes for about a year now and for us, finally being able to show them is a huge milestone towards the game's full release. When we started developing Backpack Battles, it was planned to become a tiny experimental side project. Since then, the games popularity exploded, and even though we decided to keep developing as a two-person team, we were able to commit to the project full-time. We never considered adding a synchronous mode to this asynchronous game, but with the decision to make it our main project, we had the resources to consider the massive undertaking of adding a synchronous mode. We are so hyped to finally get this feature out to you, and hope you have fun playing with a buddy or two! :) - Mario and Doro P.S.: We know many of you are hyped for achievements, and they are certainly coming with the full release!

[ 2024-12-06 09:47:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, We want to thank all of you for your support - and for playing our game! We are working hard on the next update, and we're making great progress with our roadmap. We're looking forward to our full release next year coming with two new classes, achievements, and more! If you had fun with Backpack Battles so far, it would be awesome if you would nominate it for the 2024 Steam Awards! And if you haven't bought the game yet, now's a great time: We have a 20% discount active until December 4th! - Doro and Mario

[ 2024-11-29 15:17:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

There is a beta branch with new stuff coming up soon! Here is a little item teaser but this time, the focus will be on something else (I wont spoil what the surprise will be).
Until then, we continue with balancing right where we left off last week: The last patch clearly moved us in the direction we wanted to move, but we would like to go a little further. Unless something unexpected happens, we intend to let the meta settle for a bit until the next content patch.

New Bundle: Cobalt Core

We just released a bundle with an awesome roguelike deckbuilder: Cobalt Core! Get both games or complete your set with an extra discount now! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/45354/

Changelog for 0.9.27

• Thornburst: Trigger limit 3 -> 5, Spikes 3 -> 2, stun duration 0.5s -> 0.3s, cooldown 10s -> 6.5s
• Bagtacular: Fanny Pack bonus speed 8% -> 6%, Stamina Sack bonus stamina regen 8% -> 6%
• Blood Manipulation: Cooldown 3.2s -> 3.5s
• Girl Power: Cooldown 4.7s -> 5.5s
• Heavy Drinking: Cooldown 7s -> 8.5s. Speed bonus 35% -> 40%
• Hardwood: Block Bonus 12 -> 14
• Stoned: Block bonus 50% -> 60%
• Its Slime Time!: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.2s
• Wolf Badge: Speed bonus 20% -> 25%
• Cubert: Chances 35% -> 40%

Pyromancer

• Ice Dragon: Cost 15g -> 14g

Berserker

• Deerwood Guardian: Heal 7 -> 9

Ranger

• Markswoman: Attack speed bonus 15% -> 25%
• Carrot: Cooldown 2.9s -> 2.7s

Reaper

• Cauldron: Cooldown 3.3s -> 3.5s
• Reverse!: Reflects 4 -> 3
• The Lovers: Heal amplification 10% -> 8%
• Death Scythe: Poison threshold for crit rate: 35 -> 25

[ 2024-11-29 09:55:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Our friends at Stray Fawn Studio just released Dungeon Clawler, a roguelike deckbuilder where you play on a claw machine, into Early Access! And we have bundled up with them, so you can get it with an extra discount if you already own Backpack Battles: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/47524/Backpack_Battles__Dungeon_Clawler/ We are working on big things in the background that are not quite ready to reveal just yet. Until then, here are some more adjustments that bring the new content in line. There will probably be more adjustments next week to iterate on changes that went to far or not far enough.

Changelog for 0.9.26

Balancing

Neutral

• Girl Power: Cooldown 4s -> 4.7s
• Blood Manipulation: Cooldown 3s -> 3.2s
• Bagtacular: Fanny Pack bonus speed 10% -> 8%, Stamina Sack stamina bonus 10% -> 8%
• Heavy Drinking: Cooldown 5s -> 7s, speed bonus per distinct Potion 25% -> 35%
• Just Stats / More Stats: Health gain 12% -> 10%
• Shielded: Block chance bonus 25% -> 30%
• Mana Mastery: Cooldown 5.5s -> 5s
• Vampiric Armor: Start of battle Block 65 -> 75
• Shell Totem: Cooldown 3.4s -> 3.6s
• Amulet of Darkness: Damage needed for debuff 14 -> 20
• Frostbite: Cooldown 1.6s -> 1.7s
• Ice Armor: Start of battle Block 45 -> 60
• Frozen Buckler: Stamina removal 0.5 -> 0.6
• Snow Stick: Cooldown 1.8s -> 1.9s
• Shepherd's Crook: Blind/Cold resist chance 35% -> 40%
• Stone Shoes: Block 30 -> 35, damage reduction duration 6 -> 7
• Light Goobert: Blind 6 -> 7
• Thornbloom: Max health gain 10 -> 11

Pyromancer

• Friendly Fire is now a Magic item and a Pet

Ranger

• Carrot: Cooldown 3.2s -> 2.9s
• Carrot Goobert: Empower duration 6s -> 8s
• Hedgehog: Block 15 -> 25
• Vineweave Basket: Heal amplification per Nature item 4% -> 5%

Reaper

• The Lovers: Damage 10 -> 8
• Cauldron: Cooldown 3s -> 3.3s

[ 2024-11-22 09:43:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Backpack Battles will be featured at Chinas WePlay Expo from November 16-17. Come find us at Booth B09! P.S. Were currently offering a 20% discount, the lowest in our history! If you havent purchased the game yet, nows the perfect time. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2427700/

[ 2024-11-15 14:00:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Last week we brought the *COOL* update to the main branch, so now it's time for the first adjustments. Of course, the meta is not settled at all yet, so we will be careful with our adjustments for now, expect more changes next week! By the way, if you enjoy Backpack Battles, please consider leaving a review on Steam - it's a great way to support us!

Changelog for 0.9.25

Balancing

Neutral

• Just Stats: Health bonus 15% -> 12%
• More Stats: Health bonus 15% -> 12%
• Girl Power: Cooldown 3.5s -> 4.0s
• Buy the Holy Light: Sales chance 15% -> 20%
• Mana Mastery: Cooldown 6s -> 5.5s
• Power of the Moon: Fatigue time reduction 4s -> 5s
• Hardwood: Block 10 -> 12
• Stoned: Block percentage 45% -> 50%
• Shielded: Armor speed 50% -> 60%
• Its Slime Time!: Cooldown 3s -> 2.5s
• Shepherds Crook: Cold/Blind resist chance 25% -> 35%
• Stone Shoes: Damage reduction 30% -> 35%, duration 5s -> 6s
• Stone Armor: Block 90 -> 110
• Amulet of Darkness: Damage threshold for debuff 10 -> 14, damage dealt 5 -> 7
• Frozen Buckler: Damage block 7 -> 10
• Frostbite: Chance to inflict Cold 60% -> 45%
• Snow Stick: Cooldown 1.7s -> 1.8s
• Holy Spear: Added 2 * slots
• Spiked Shield: Spikes limit 4 -> 5
• Shield of Valor / Moon Shield: Damage reduction 12 -> 14
• Amethyst (Inventory): Cooldown reduced
• Cubert: Convert chance 30% -> 35%
• Artifact Stone: Death: Cooldown 2.3s -> 2.1s

Ranger

• Vineweave Basket: Healing per Nature item 3 -> 4
• Acorn Ace: Stamina usage reduction 8% -> 10%

[ 2024-11-15 09:59:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

We have more great news! Not only do we have a big patch coming to the main branch (more on this in a second), we can finally reveal our collab with one of our favorite deckbuilders: Wildfrost. Fitting perfectly into the theme of this update, we add the Snowcake as an Unique item and a craftable Snow Stick.
There is also a Ranger skin based on Yuki, and just as in Wildfrost, her snowball grows over time! And of course, the other classes get a skin as well, check out Doom Cap Reaper, Shaman Beserker and Dark Pyromancer!
We also have a bundle available, where you can purchase both games with an additional 10% discount! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/46297

New Items!

But wait, there is more. We are adding 10 more skills, so the game now features 30 skills in total.
Only one of the new skills is class-specific - Heart of the Cards requires you to have a Deck of Cards. This is for testing the "Requires" keyword.
The new skills Just Stats and More Stats will be available in the same slot every run, and offer an alternative to rolling away the skills in case none of them fit your current build. Of course, picking a fitting skill should still be the better option. The Wonky Snowman is a new shop item that breaks up into two Snowballs. Snowball is the new crafting ingredient for Ice items instead of the Spell Scroll: Frostbolt, which makes them accessible earlier and for all classes. This will of course come with adjustments to the Cryomancer subclass. We reworked the Ripsaw Blade with a completely new mechanic: It removes temporary damage from opponent weapons. It also got its first crafting successor, the Katana! The other new items are the Amulet of Darkness, a new variant of the Unidentified Amulet, and two recipes: You can now craft Stone Shoes and the Shepherd's Crook.

New Tooltips & Icons

We gave item types an overhaul: Elemental types like Ice, Holy, etc. are now represented as icons. We also added icons for different types of damage, you can find them on weapons and other damage-dealing items. The current damage types are Melee, Ranged, and Effect damage - with Effect damage collecting more indirect damage sources. We added several items to buff or counter Effect damage in this update. We also revised all item texts and made some changes to improve tooltip readability! Please give yourself a moment to get used to the new tooltips.
You can now also filter for these types in the item library.

Build History

The big quality-of-life feature for this patch is the Build History. It keeps the full progression of your builds throughout your runs. And as a little bonus, you can start additional fights to find out how the build would have performed against different opponents. This also means that you can send your round 18 backpack out to fight as often as you want, which was a commonly requested feature!
And there's more! You can now press Alt while hovering over an item to show all the recipes it can build into! This was requested a bunch of times, and we found a way to display the recipes nicely. As always, we do our best to make features as useful as possible - the tooltips also show which items you already own and which ones can be bought from the current shop.

More Languages

With this update, the game now supports Latin American Spanish, French, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese! You can change the language in the options if Steam doesn't apply it automatically. We hope this makes the game accessible to more players around the world!

Magicraft Crossover

In case you missed it, we just added Pop and Cthulhu from Magicraft as Unique items last week! They just had their 1.0 release - and don't forget you can get it with a discount if you already own Backpack Battles: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/46693 By the way, our publisher is also holding an annual publisher sale. Go take a look and grab some amazing games: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/indiearkpublishersale2024/

Full Changelog for 0.9.24

• NEW ITEM: Wonky Snowman / Snowball
• NEW SKILL: Heavy Drinking
• NEW SKILL: Buy the Holy Light
• NEW SKILL: Girl Power
• NEW SKILL: Blood Manipulation
• NEW SKILL: Bagtacular
• NEW SKILL: Uniquely Unique
• NEW SKILL: Thornburst
• NEW SKILL: Just Stats
• NEW SKILL: More Stats
• NEW SKILL (Reaper): Heart of the Cards
• NEW RECIPE: Katana
• NEW RECIPE: Stone Shoes
• NEW RECIPE: Shepherds Crook
• NEW RECIPE: Snow Stick
• NEW ITEM: Amulet of Darkness
• NEW UNIQUE: Snow Cake
• NEW FEATURE: Build History
• NEW FEATURE: You can now press alt when hovering an item to see what it builds into!

Balancing

Neutral

• All Weapon pets now deal effect damage, while still keeping their original damage type.
• Stone Armor: Removed on-hit effect, now removes Spikes and Empower every 4s
• Ripsaw Blade: Now removes gained damage from items and gains damage. No longer removes buffs.
• Piggy Piata: * items now gain 5% crit chance, slightly reduced explosion gold value
• Manathirst: Mana gained 1 -> 2. Mana needed to steal life 20 -> 30.
• Its Slime Time!: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.0s
• Investment Opportunity: Max health gained 1.5 -> 2
• Shielded: Block Bonus 20% -> 25%
• Amulet of Alchemy: Added more * slots
• Burning Coal (Armor): Cold resist 4 -> 5
• Steel Goobert: Block 13 -> 16
• Potion Belt Cleanse: 7 -> 8
• Protective Purse: Block 13 -> 15
• Emerald (Weapon): Increased Poison amount of high rarities
• Amethyst (Inventory): Drastically reduced cooldown
• Oil Lamp: Cooldown 3.2s -> 3.4s
• Frozen Buckler: Damage prevention 6 -> 7
• Cubert: Empower chance 25% -> 30%
• Heart Container: Maximum health gain: 90 -> 100
• Heart of Darkness: Maximum health gain: 90 -> 100
• Magic Torch: Stamina cost 1 -> 0.7
• Artifact Stone: Death: Damage +5

Pyromancer

• Ice Dragon: Now also reduces effect damage
• Dark Lantern: Invulnerability 1.8s -> 1.5s
• Frozen Flame: 12 Block -> 8, Crit chance 2% -> 1.5% (to compensate for Ice items being easier to obtain now)

Berserker

• Cheese Goobert: Maximum Health: 15 -> 18

Ranger

• Critwood Staff: Mana cost 4 -> 3

Reaper

• The Lovers: Damage 11 -> 10. Now also gains 10% heal increase
• Ace of Spades: Spikes 2 -> 3
• Reverse! : Reflected debuffs 3 -> 4
• White-Eyes Blue Dragon: Now also reduces incoming effect damage
• Holo Fire Lizard: Now adds effect damage bonus
• Jimbo: Four-of-a-kind bonus now activates 2 cards
• Doom Cap: Cooldown 3.2s -> 3.0s
• Ruby Chonk: Damage -3

[ 2024-11-07 17:59:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today is the release day of a game we really like! We are pleased to let you know that Magicraft just finished their Early access, and not only that: They did a really fun collab with us.
This means you will be able to play Reaper in Magicraft! Also, we added two Uniques for this occasion: Pop and Cthulhu. Some real cuties from Magicraft. And of course, we are launching a bundle as well! Even if you already own one of the games, you can get the other one at a discount: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/46693

[ 2024-11-02 03:00:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Another big patch is ready for beta testing!

The focus of this upcoming update is to fill in gaps in the existing items, with 10 more skills and several new recipes alongside some item reworks!

New Skills

We are adding 10 more skills, so the game now features 30 skills in total.
Only one of the new skills is class-specific - Heart of the Cards requires you to play Reaper and have a Deck of Cards. This is for testing the "Requires" keyword.
The new skills Just Stats and More Stats will be available in the same slot every run, and offer an alternative to rolling away the skills in case none of them fit your current build. Of course, picking a fitting skill should still be the better option.

New Items

The Wonky Snowman is a new shop item that breaks up into two Snowballs. Snowball is the new crafting ingredient for Ice items instead of the Spell Scroll: Frostbolt, which makes them accessible earlier and for all classes. This will of course come with adjustments to the Cryomancer subclass. We reworked the Ripsaw Blade with a completely new mechanic: It removes temporary damage from opponent weapons. It also got its first crafting successor, the Katana! The other new items are the Amulet of Darkness, a new variant of the Unidentified Amulet, and two recipes: You can now craft Stone Shoes and the Shepherd's Crook.

New Tooltips & Icons

We gave item types an overhaul: Elemental types like Ice, Holy, etc. are now represented as icons. We also added icons for different types of damage, you can find them on weapons and other damage-dealing items. The current damage types are Melee, Ranged, and Effect damage - with Effect damage collecting more indirect damage sources. We added several items to buff or counter Effect damage in this update. We also revised all item texts and made some changes to improve tooltip readability! Please give yourself a moment to get used to the new tooltips.
You can now also filter for these types in the item library.

Build History

The big quality-of-life feature for this patch is the Build History. It keeps the full progression of your builds throughout your runs. And as a little bonus, you can start additional fights to find out how the build would have performed against different opponents. This also means that you can send your round 18 backpack out to fight as often as you want, which was a commonly requested feature! Please use the beta branch to test the History thoroughly :)

The Beta Branch

We have instructions on how to join the branch on our Discord server. Please keep in mind that the goal of the beta branch is to find bugs and issues! The update is planned to go live on November 7th, coming with balancing changes and some more surprises!

(Prelimilary) Changelog for 0.9.24

• NEW ITEM: Wonky Snowman / Snowball
• NEW SKILL: Heavy Drinking
• NEW SKILL: Buy the Holy Light
• NEW SKILL: Girl Power
• NEW SKILL: Blood Manipulation
• NEW SKILL: Bagtacular
• NEW SKILL: Uniquely Unique
• NEW SKILL: Thornburst
• NEW SKILL: Just Stats
• NEW SKILL: More Stats
• NEW SKILL (Reaper): Heart of the Cards
• NEW RECIPE: Katana
• NEW RECIPE: Stone Shoes
• NEW RECIPE: Shepherds Crook
• NEW FEATURE: Build History

Changed Effects

• Stone Armor: Removed on-hit effect, now removes Spikes and Empower every 4s
• Ripsaw Blade: Now removes gained damage from items and gains damage. No longer removes buffs
• Piggy Piata: * items now gain 5% crit chance, slightly reduced explosion gold value
• Ice Dragon: Now also reduces effect damage
• The Lovers: Now also gains 10% heal increase
• White-Eyes Blue Dragon: Now also reduced incoming effect damage
• Holo Fire Lizard: Now adds effect damage bonus
• Jimbo: Four-of-a-kind bonus now activates 2 cards
• All Weapon pets now deal effect damage, while still keeping their original damage type.

[ 2024-10-25 09:38:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

We are preparing the next big update that will focus on rounding out the Skill selection and more recipes! And of course, there will be some other goodies as well. Its planned to come to the beta branch on 25th of October. For now, we have another balance update. After that, we plan to let the meta settle for a bit until the new content comes to the main branch.

Changelog for 0.9.23

Balancing

Neutral

• Wooden Buckler / Spiked Shield: Damage prevented 6 -> 7
• Djinn Lamp: Cooldown 1.7s -> 1.6s
• Poison Dagger: Cooldown 2.9s -> 2.7s
• Spectral Dagger: Damage +1
• Stone Golem: Damage +3
• Prismatic Sword: Debuffs 3 -> 4
• King Goobert: Heal 30 -> 35
• Crossblades: Damage +2
• Shielded: Armor trigger speed 40% -> 50%
• Power of the Moon: Heal 40% -> 50%
• Hardwood: Block 8 -> 10
• Artifact Stone: Death: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.3s
• Leaf Badge: Cooldown 2.3s -> 2.2s
• Blood Harvester: Damage +2
• Cubert: Regeneration chance 30% -> 35%

Ranger

• Rat Chef: Cooldown 6s -> 7s
• Yggdrasil Leaf: Heal 13 -> 17

Reaper

• Mushroom Farm: Speed Bonus 40% -> 50%
• Doom Cap: Cooldown 3.4s -> 3.2s

[ 2024-10-11 09:03:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

We are doing some more adjustments reacting to the new items and their impact. Also, we started a poll on our Discord about the type of content you would like to see most for future updates - this will help us prioritize what we work on next!

Changelog for 0.9.22

Balancing

Neutral

• Piggy Piata: Increased break value
• Its Slime Time!: Cooldown 4s -> 3.5s
• Goobling: Heal 5 -> 4
• Shielded: Armor speed bonus 35% -> 40%
• Hardwood: Block 7 -> 8
• Smithing for Dummies: Stamina reduction 18% -> 15%
• Stoned: Block bonus 40% -> 45%
• Mana Mastery: Bonus buffs 13 -> 17
• Power of the Moon: Fatigue start speedup 3s -> 4s
• Blood Amulet: Cost 9g -> 8g
• Holy Armor: Block 60 -> 65
• Vampiric Armor: Block 60 -> 65
• Moon Armor: Block 45 -> 50
• Corrupted Armor: Block 75 -> 85
• Stone Armor: Block 35% -> 40%
• Gloves of Power: Block 6 -> 7
• Djinn Lamp: Cooldown 1.8s -> 1.7s
• Fanfare: Cooldown 3.2s -> 3.0s
• Strong Pestilence Flask: Delay 7s -> 6s
• Stone Golem: Activated Cooldown 2.8s -> 2.6s
• Platinum Customer Card: Buff Protection 15% -> 20%
• Poison Dagger: Cooldown 3s -> 2.9s
• Vampiric Potion: Vampirism 2 -> 3
• Cubert: Chance to gain Regeneration 25% -> 30%

Pyromancer

• Everburning: Stamina reduction 30% -> 40%

Ranger

• Rat Chef: Cooldown 5s -> 6s
• Squirrel Archer: Cooldown 3s -> 3.2s
• Yggdrasil Leaf: Heal 10 -> 13
• Carrot Goobert: Activations 5 -> 6, Empower duration 5s -> 6s

Reaper

• Fly Agaric: Cooldown 4.5s -> 4.3s
• Doom Cap: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.4s
• Strong Vampiric Potion: Vampirism 4 -> 5

Other

• Added lights behind all skills
• Tooltips now show which class the items belong to

[ 2024-10-04 08:58:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

We're thrilled to announce that Backpack Battles will be participating in the Multi-player & Fun Week event, starting on September 30th! The game will be available at a 10% discount for 7 days.
If you havent picked up Backpack Battles yet, this is the perfect opportunity. We also have several bundle deals with other games, where you can enjoy an additional 10% discount on top of the bundle price! Check out the bundles here: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/38429/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39016/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39017/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41415/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41490/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41491/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/43815/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/44489/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/44519/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/45039/

[ 2024-09-28 08:10:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

We're collaborating with PvP auto battler Claws & Chaos! They just announced their release date - October 22nd - and added an Endless mode called Rapture Mode that you can playtest now. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2377230/Claws__Chaos/ This update adds two characters from Claws & Chaos as recipes: The Rat Chef and the Squirrel Archer! You can craft these cute critters when you have picked up the Big Bowl of Treats on Ranger, granting you access to the Friends of the Forest!

We are also making some balancing adjustments after adding the Skills last week. It was awesome to hear you like them a lot! We'll be doing a poll soon on our Discord about the next item sets.

Changelog for 0.9.21

• ADDED Ranger Recipes: Rat Chef and Squirrel Archer (Its a collab with Claws & Chaos, go check them out!)

Balancing

Neutral

• Piggy Piata: Increased break value
• Superspacious: Bag sales chance 40% -> 30%
• Investment Opportunity: Maximum health gain 2 -> 1.5
• Smithing for Dummies: Stamina reduction 20% -> 18
• Spectral Dagger: Cooldown 2.3s -> 2.1s
• Holy Spear: Stamina cost 0.6 -> 0.4
• Crossblades: Damage +2
• Blood Harvester: Stamina cost 0.2 -> 0
• Stable Recombobulator: Cooldown 3s -> 2.5s
• Artifact Stone: Death: Crit bonus 5% -> 7%

Berserker

• Dragon Set: Cooldown 1s -> 1.2s

Ranger

• Big Bowl of Treats: Cooldown 3.5 -> 3.7
• Rat: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.3s
• Yggdrasil Leaf: Heal 7 -> 10
• Acorn Ace: Stamina reduction 10% -> 8%, stamina reduction for Critwood Staffs 50% -> 75%

Reaper

• Fly Agaric: Cooldown 4.7s -> 4.5s
• Mushroom Farm: Speed bonus 35% -> 40%
• Dark Ritual: Delay 15s -> 17s

Fixes

• Fixed Box of Prosperity visual effect sometimes not showing up when using Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Y
• Fixed Artifact Stone: Death not updating crit rate correctly

[ 2024-09-27 09:00:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

the biggest Backpack Battles update is here - the Skills Update!
In rounds 4 and 10 you can pick 1 out of 3 Skills. Skills are a special kind of item that mix up the gameplay and open up new kinds of builds.
Currently, there is a total of 20 skills, some can only be found in round 4, some only in round 10 and some of them are in both pools (you can check this in the item info panel). Each class has 2 class-specific skills. We plan to add more skills in a later update. If you enjoy Backpack Battles, please consider leaving a review - it's a great way to support the game!

Changelog for 0.9.20

• ADDED 20 SKILLS!
• In rounds 4 and 10 you can now choose 1 out of 3 skills
• Item library info panel now shows the rounds in which Unique items can be found
• Shop now shows Choose a subclass in subclass round (similar in skill rounds)
• Added Reaper Recipe: Doomcap
• Item Library: Items can now be left-clicked for a detail view

Balancing

Neutral

• Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal 13 -> 15
• Shovel: Damage +1
• Wooden Buckler: Damage prevented 5 -> 6
• Spiked Shield: Damage prevented 5 -> 6
• Ice Dragon: Block 35 -> 50
• Unstable / Stable Recombublator now have an in-combat effect (partially reduced the value increases of the last patches to compensate for this)
• Blood Harvester: Stamina cost 0.4 -> 0.2
• Villain Sword: Stamina cost 0.5 -> 0.3
• Skull Badge: Cooldown 1.6s -> 1.5s
• Artifact Stone: Death: Cooldown 3s -> 2.5s
• Unsettling Presence: Heal 10 -> 12
• Time Dilator: Speed increase 5% -> 6%
• Holy Spear: Accuracy 150% -> 200%

Pyromancer

• Friendly Fire: Cooldown 3.2s -> 3s
• Dragon Nest: Heal 4 -> 5
• Frostbite: Damage per Cold 0.5 -> 0.4, chance to inflict Cold 50% -> 60%
• Frozen Buckler: Damage prevented 5 -> 6

Ranger

• Vineweave Basket: Sale chance bonus 17% -> 20%
• Big Bowl of Treats: Removed 2 star slots
• Piercing Arrow: Critical damage 40% -> 50%
• Belladonnas Whisper: Damage +3

Reaper

• Relic Case: Cooldown 3s -> 3.2s
• Cursed Dagger: Cooldown 2.1s -> 2.0s
• Death Scythe: Cost 14g -> 12g
• Snake: Health Bonus 55 -> 50
• Strong Demonic Flask: Lifesteal 0.7 -> 0.75
• Strong Vampiric Flask: Vampirism 3 -> 4

Fixes

• Fixed items being grabbed without input after returning to shop

[ 2024-09-20 09:06:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

The upcoming update is both the biggest and most experimental yet! In rounds 4 and 10 you will be able to pick 1 out of 3 Skills. Skills are a special kind of item that mixes up the gameplay and opens up now kinds of builds.
Here are two examples. Its Slime Time can drop in round 4 and gives you access to Gooblings, a new item, and is the basis for a Goobert-based strategy:
Mana Mastery is a Skill that can be found in both round 4 and round 10. It is a Mana source and makes Mana Orbs a more effective payoff.
Currently, there is a total of 20 skills, some can only be found in round 4, some only in round 10 and some of them are in both pools (you can check this in the item info panel). Each class has 2 class-specific skills.
This is a very experimental feature that we have great hopes for. After a sufficiently long testing period, we plan to start a poll on our Discord to see if you like it as much as we do, and plan our following steps accordingly.

Joining the Beta

You can play it by joining the public beta branch. If you have never participated before, you can instructions on how to join on our Discord server. It is planned to come to the main branch on 20th September. Until then, have fun testing and do not forget: The beta branch is for finding issues, bugs are to be expected - please report them in our Discord or the steam community so they can be addressed.

Future Updates

While this is the last major mechanic we plan to integrate in the game, we are still working on the private lobbies (play with friends) as well as different quality-of-life features. We will also add many more items, including a second set of skills! With the 1.0 release, we will add two more classes and Steam achievements.

[ 2024-09-06 08:57:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Here are some more adjustments, mostly to further balance the new bags. We plan to bring the beta branch back up next Friday (6th of September), with a massive chunk of stuff!! Here's a little teaser:
Have you ordered your own Ranger plushie yet? We still need some preorders to fund the campaign, so get your hands on the plushie now!

Changelog for 0.9.19

Balancing

Neutral

• Pan: Damage +1
• Amulet of Feasting: Speed bonus 35% -> 40%
• Flute: Cooldown 5s -> 4.7s
• Fanfare: Cooldown 3.4s -> 3.2s
• Unstable Recombobulator: Generated gold value +1
• Leather Boots: Block 10 -> 15
• Thornbloom: Health per Empower 8 -> 10
• Djinn Lamp: Cooldown 1.9s -> 1.8s
• Jynx torquilla: Cost 9g -> 8g
• Holy Spear: Stamina cost 0.8 -> 0.6
• Stone Golem: Bag of Stones bonus damage 8 -> 10
• King Goobert: Buff protection 2 -> 3, Mana cost 5 -> 4
• Corrupted Armor: Cooldown 2.6s -> 2.4s
• Prismatic Orb: Cost 12g -> 13g
• Prismatic Sword: Damage +2
• Skull Badge: Cooldown 1.8s -> 1.6s
• Villain Sword: Stamina cost 0.7 -> 0.5
• Stable Recombobulator: Cost 9g -> 6g
• Artifact Stone: Death: Cooldown 4s -> 3s
• Time Dilator: Cost 10g -> 8g

Berserker

• Utility Pouch: Battle Rage duration 5s -> 6s
• Dragonskin Boots: Block 12 -> 20

Ranger

• Vineweave Basket: Sales chance bonus 12% -> 17%
• Rat: Cooldown 3.8s -> 3.5s
• Carrot: Cooldown 3.4s -> 3.2s
• Carrot Goobert: Cleanse 3 -> 4

Reaper

• Relic Case: Cooldown 2.8s -> 3.0s
• Fly Agaric: Cooldown 5s -> 4.7s
• Strong Demonic Flask: Lifesteal per debuff 0.6 -> 0.7

Fixes

• Combat log: fixed buff icons staying when a different meter is chosen
• Combat log: fixed Stone Armor logging Spike removal twice
• Improved layouting of gated and crafted items in item library info panel

Other

• Right-clicking the reroll rope now does a funny thing

[ 2024-08-30 09:01:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Our Ranger plushie campaign ends soon - there are only 7 days left! If you haven't done so, now's the time to order your plush on Makeship. She comes with a backpack you can put on and off, a Wooden Sword that you can attach to her hand, a Lucky Clover, and even a tiny Goobert. We took her outside for a little photoshoot, it was so fun

[ 2024-08-29 08:39:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

We are adjusting the new bags a bit more. Relic Case still performed very well, so we will keep monitoring it until it is closer to the other options. We have been working on the last major mechanic we plan to introduce before the full release, stay tuned for more info on that soon! :) Have you ordered your own Ranger plushie yet? We still need some preorders to fund the campaign, so get your hands on the plushie now!

Changelog for 0.9.18

Balancing

Neutral

• Slightly increased the average value generated by Sack of Surprises
• Stable Recombobulator: Cost 12g -> 9g
• Villain Sword: Cost 8g -> 7g
• Blood Harvester: Cost 8g -> 7g
• Dancing Dragon: Cost 11g -> 9g
• Artifact Stone: Death: Cost 9g -> 8g
• Wolf Badge: Battle Rage duration 4.5s -> 5s
• Flame Badge: Heat 5 -> 6
• Fanfare: Cooldown 3.6s -> 3.4s
• Amulet of Steel: Block needed 40 -> 35
• Amulet of Alchemy: Chance 60% -> 70%
• Spiked Shield: Spikes limit 3 -> 4
• Shell Totem: Cooldown 3.3s -> 3.4s
• Unstable Recombobulator: Output gold value +1
• Djinn Lamp: Cooldown 2.0s -> 1.9s
• Holy Spear: Stamina cost 1.0 -> 0.8

Pyromancer

• Offering Bowl: Sell value 6g -> 4g

Berserker

• Utility Pouch: Lifesteal 30% -> 35%

Ranger

• Vineweave Basket: Heal amplification 8% -> 10%, sales bonus: 10% -> 12%
• Rat: Cooldown 4s -> 3.8s

Reaper

• Relic Case: Cooldown 2.6s -> 2.8s

Fixes

• Fixed Impractically Large Greatsword mode not being restored correctly in combat log replay
• Fixed issue when picking up a bag and then shifting the inventory with arrow keys
• Fixed Sun Armor still applying the Holy tag to items after being consumed by Offering Bowl

Other

• Added rainbow particles when random character mode is active

[ 2024-08-23 08:45:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Here are the first few adjustments after introducing the new starting bags. Expect more adjustments next week when we have seen them in action for longer! We are currently doing a campaign for this super cute Ranger plushie made by Makeship. We need 200 orders, so help us get the plushie funded!

Changelog for 0.9.17

Balancing

Neutral

• Slightly increased the average value generated by Sack of Surprises
• Shell Totem: Cooldown 3.2s -> 3.3s
• Broom: Blind Chance 35% -> 33%
• Wooden Buckler: Damage prevention 4 -> 5
• Spiked Shield: Damage prevention 4 -> 5
• Leather Boots: Block 8 -> 10
• Fanfare: Cooldown 3.8s -> 3.6s
• Holy Spear: Mana cost 14 -> 10
• Artifact Stone: Death: Cost 10g -> 9g
• Pumpkin: Cost 9g -> 8g
• Dancing Dragon: Cost 12g -> 11g
• Pineapple: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.3s
• Amulet of Steel: Block needed 45 -> 40
• Prismatic Orb: Cooldown 7s -> 8s
• Maneki-neko: Speed bonus 20% -> 15%, now has Holy type
• Platinum Customer Card: Buff protection chance 10% -> 15%
• Divine Potion: Cost 8g -> 7g

Pyromancer

• Molten Dagger: Damage -1

Berserker

• Utility Pouch: Lifesteal 25% -> 30%

Ranger

• Carrot: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.4s
• Vineweave Basket: Heal amplification 10% + 2% per Nature item -> 8% + 3% per Nature item

Reaper

• Relic Case: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.6s

Fixes

• Tooltips now round stamina usage
• Class pick buttons are now in foreground when wardrobe is open
• Fixed Pyromancer / Berserker not jumping when clicked
• Fixed error in crit calculation of Artifact Stone: Death
• Fixed rare tooltip scaling issue
• Fixed parts of the translation not applying to combat log/item library when switching language
• Amulet of the Wild now works with dragon eggs, dragon eggs now all activate start of battle

[ 2024-08-16 08:56:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Another big patch is ready to go live, and with that we are ready to introduce a mechanic that we talked about for quite a while!
The alternative starting bags are here and we are very excited to see them in action! Another addition are 5 new Unique items that you can find in the shop if you're lucky! Also, we have thrown in a new Epic shop item, the Unstable Recombobulator that helps you recycle items you no longer need.
As usual, this is expected to shake the balance up a bit, so expect adjustments in the following weeks in order to deal with that. We are planning to add one more major mechanic before full release, which will come in the next major update. Stay tuned for more details and potentially a beta branch popping up in the next few weeks!

Get the Ranger Plushie Now!

We just launched another plushie campaign together with Makeship - the Ranger. She's super soft and comes with a Wooden Sword, a removable backpack that contains a Lucky Clover and a Goobert and you can even take off her hood! Order yours now because it's only available for a limited time.

Changelog for 0.9.16

New Content

• New Ranger starting bag option: Vineweave Basket
• New Reaper starting bag option: Relic Case
• New Berserker starting bag option: Utility Pouch
• New Pyromancer starting bag option: Offering Bowl
• New Unique: Artifact Stone: Death
• New Unique: Unsettling Presence
• New Unique: Stable Recombobulator
• New Unique: Time Dilator
• New Unique: Cubert
• New Epic Item: Unstable Recombobulator

• Loadouts: All classes now have the option to choose one out of two class-specific starting loadouts and a randomized loadout.
• Random class: You can choose to randomize the character and the loadout using the dice button.

Balancing

Neutral

• Shop Unique chance increased by 2% on every round
• Platinum Customer Card: Unique chance 15% -> 25%
• Prismatic Sword: Cooldown 1.5s -> 1.4s
• Stone Golem: Cooldown 6s / 3s -> 5.5s / 2.8s
• Amulet of Steel: Block needed for Empower 50 -> 45
• Amulet of Feasting: Speed bonus 30% -> 35%
• Amulet of Energy: Refund 20% -> 25%
• Amulet of Wild: Spikes damage limit bonus 40% -> 50%
• Amulet of Alchemy: Activation delay 3s -> 2.5s
• Mana Potion: Max health 15 -> 18
• Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal 19 -> 13 , Vampirism 1 -> 2
• Thornbloom: Stamina cost 2.2 -> 2.1, cooldown 2.2s -> 2.1s
• Holy Spear: Mana Cost 18 -> 14
• Blood Harvester: Stamina cost 0.5 -> 0.4
• Villain Sword: Cost 9 -> 8
• Crossblades: Speed increase 3% -> 4%
• Fanfare: Cooldown 4s -> 3.8s
• Holy Armor / Moon Armor / Corrupted Armor: Cooldown 2.8s -> 2.6s
• Vampiric Armor: Cooldown 3.0s -> 2.8s
• Gloves of Power: Block 5 -> 6
• Ruby Whelp: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.1s
• Ice Dragon: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.1s
• Eggscalibur now has the Magic type
• Leaf Badge: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.3s
• Skull Badge: Cooldown 2.0s -> 1.8s
• Wolf Badge: Battle rage duration 4s -> 4.5s
• Flame Badge: Flame chance 50% -> 65%, Heat 4 -> 5

Pyromancer

• Balance-relevant bugfix: Molten Dagger no longer gains damage when missing
• Friendly Fire: Cooldown 3.4s -> 3.2s
• Emerald Whelp: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.1s
• Sapphire Whelp: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.1s
• Amethyst Whelp: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.1s
• Obsidian Dragon: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.1s

Ranger

• Big Bowl of Treats: Added 4 more star tiles
• Yggdrasil Leaf now has the Magic type

Reaper

• Snake: Maximum health per pet 60 -> 55
• Ruby Chonk: Cooldown 2.0s -> 2.1s
• Strong Mana Potion: Max health 20 -> 25

Fixes

• Fixed visual glitch with Amulet of Alchemy
• Fixed visual glitch with Box of Prosperity
• Gems are now kept in sockets better when crafting King Goobert, Double Axe etc.
• Fixed a visual glitch when using Ctrl + Z while an item was moving back to its place

Other

• Mega Clover now has particles when the Luck threshold is met
• Improved recipe tooltip layout on recipe page
• Improved positioning of storage box items after Ctrl + Z
• Added visual for a Phoenix that has used the reincarnation

[ 2024-08-11 08:32:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Backpack Battles is part of the Tiny Teams festival!

We've been selected as a Champion of this year's event To celebrate, Backpack Battles is on a 10% discount until August 15th!
Check out the event featuring tons of amazing games by small teams. One of them is Tiny Rogues, a pixel art fantasy roguelike bullet hell dungeon crawler with RPG elements. Tiny Rogues was made by solo developer RubyDev. And he's bundling up with us now! You can get both games with a 10% discount or if you already own one of the games, grab the other one for another 10% off.

[ 2024-08-08 17:00:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

The Ranger plushie is here!! We partnered up with Makeship once again to bring you this cute plushie:
She's super soft and comes with a Wooden Sword, a removable backpack that contains a Lucky Clover and a Goobert and you can even take off her hood! Order yours now because it's only available for a limited time.

[ 2024-08-08 09:00:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

A while ago we stumbled across the idea to give characters the option to choose different starting bags for different playstyles. According to a poll at the time, most of you seemed interested in that idea, so we got to work, and you can try it out now!

Alternative Loadouts

With this patch, every class has a second unique starting bag to choose from that comes with different items.

• Reaper: Relic Case
• Ranger: Vineweave Basket
• Berserker: Utility Pouch
• Pyromancer: Offering Bowl

Additionally, there is the option for brave players to random their starting loadout by choosing the Sack of Surprises, and the option to random both the starting class and loadout.

Additional Uniques & More

We also add 5 more Uniques, and increase the chance to find unique items. There is also a new Epic item you can try, the Unstable Recombobulator. If all goes well, 0.9.16 is planned to go to the main branch on Sunday, August 11. Balance changes to the existing items will also be implemented when the patch goes to main branch.

The Beta Branch

On our Discord server, you can find instructions on how to join the beta.

The new content needs testing - bugs are to be expected. If you encounter any, please report them on our Discord server.

[ 2024-07-26 11:51:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Time for more adjustments! This week, the biggest outlier was Cold Pyromancer, so there will be some nerfs. We will of course monitor the strength of the class and make sure to correct if the adjustments went too far (or not far enough). If all goes according to plan, the beta branch will come up again next Friday with new content, stay tuned for more info!

Changelog for 0.9.15

Balancing

Neutral

• Corrupted Armor: Cooldown 3s -> 2.8s
• Moon Armor: Cooldown 3s -> 2.8s
• Holy Armor: Cooldown 3s -> 2.8s
• Potion Belt: Cleanse 6 -> 7
• Burning Coal (Armor): Cold stacks resisted 3 -> 4
• Holy Spear: Mana Cost 22 -> 18
• Box of Prosperity: Godlies/Uniques required 3 -> 2
• Prismatic Sword: Cooldown 1.6s -> 1.5s
• Amulet of Alchemy: Potion activate chance 50% -> 60%
• Amulet of the Wild: Spikes damage limit 35% -> 40%
• Amulet of Steel: Block 20 -> 25
• Strong Health Potion: Heal 20 -> 24
• Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal 17 -> 19
• Ruby Egg/Ruby Whelp: Reflects 2 -> 3
• Blood Harvester: Cost 9g -> 8g
• Villain Sword: Cost 10g -> 9g

Pyromancer

• Molten Dagger: Damage -1
• Molten Spear: Damage -1
• Frozen Flame: Block bonus 15 -> 12
• Book of Ice: Cooldown 3s -> 3.2s
• Frostbite: Cold chance 60% -> 50%
• Chili Goobert: Heal 10 -> 12

Berserker

• Spiked Staff: Damage +2

Ranger

• Yggdrasil Leaf: Heal 5 -> 7

Reaper

• Toad: Heal 10 -> 12, cooldown 4.0s -> 3.8s
• Staff of Unhealing: Mana cost 6 -> 5
• Death Scythe: Stamina Cost 1.5 -> 1.2
• Demonic Flask: Damage per debuff 0.4 -> 0.45
• Strong Demonic Flask: Lifesteal per debuff 0.5 -> 0.6

Fixes:

• Fixed item shadow lagging a frame behind when rotating the item

[ 2024-07-19 08:57:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Another week rolled around and its time for some more adjustments to the new items and all the things they impacted! We will of course keep monitoring and see if more adjustments are necessary in the future. Apart from that, we are working away at several exciting things that are not quite yet ready to be announced, we hope we can give more info soon! :)

Changelog for 0.9.14

Balancing

Neutral

• Oil Lamp: Cooldown 3s -> 3.2s
• Prismatic Orb: Heal increase 5% -> 4%
• Prismatic Sword: Dark item bonus chance 10% -> 12%
• Holy Spear: Mana Cost 25 -> 22
• King Goobert: Heal 25 -> 30
• Thornbloom: Maximum health gained 7 -> 8
• Amulet of the Wild: Spikes 3 -> 4
• Amulet of Alchemy: Potion trigger chance 40% -> 50%
• Burning Torch: Chance to gain damage 35% -> 30%
• Magic Torch: Cooldown 1.4s -> 1.5s
• Frostbite now has the Vampiric type
• Shiny Shell now has the Nature type
• Flute and Fanfare now have the Magic type

Pyromancer

• Burning Blade can now also be crafted using a Hero Longsword and 2 Flames
• Molten Dagger: Damage -1

Berserker

• Brass Knuckles: Cooldown 2.6s -> 2.5s
• Anvil: Stamina reduction 4% -> 5%
• Spiked Staff: Damage +2

Ranger

• Belladonnas Whisper: Damage per Poison 6 -> 5
• Tusk Piercer: Spikes 3 -> 4
• Yggdrasil Leaf: Added one * tile

Reaper

• Nocturnal Lock Lifter: Lifesteal per Vampiric item 10% -> 8%
• Snake: Maximum health per pet 55 -> 60
• Cursed Dagger: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.1s

[ 2024-07-12 08:54:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

The Rainbow Goobert plush campaign will end in two days - so quickly pre-order yours now! The Rainbow covers the whole blob and unlike in Backpack Battles, you can even see what a Goobert's butt looks like!
Thank you for your support! - Doro and Mario

[ 2024-07-11 15:31:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had fun with the new items so far! Today its time for the first round of adjustments. Since the content is so fresh, we will be careful for now, but you can expect more adjustments soon when there was more time to experiment! Good news - the Rainbow Goobert plushie is fully funded and available for one more week! Thank you everyone for the support

Full Changelog for 0.9.13

Balancing

Neutral

• Burning Torch: Damage -1
• Stone Golem: Damage per Bag of Stones: 7 -> 8
• Amulet of the Wild: Increased maximum Spike damage 30% -> 35%
• Amulet of Alchemy: Potion repeat chance 35% -> 40%
• Thornbloom: Empower chance 50% -> 60%, damage +1
• King Goobert: Invulnerability 1.3s -> 1.5s
• Holy Spear: Accuracy 100% -> 150%
• Potion Belt: Cleansed debuffs 5 -> 6

Pyromancer

• Dark Lantern: Debuffs per Dark item 8 -> 7, Invulnerability time 2s -> 1.8s
• Burning Banner: Cooldown 3.6s -> 3.8s

Berserker

• Spiked Staff: Mana Cost 4 -> 3

Reaper

• Snake: Health per pet 40 -> 55
• Demonic Flask: Damage per debuff 0.35 -> 0.4
• Strong Demonic Flask: Damage per debuff 0.45 -> 0.5

Fixes

• Fixed visual glitch of the Heart Container/Heart of Darkness
• Fixed invulnerability animation staying in shop
• More visual effects now react to time speed changes in combat

[ 2024-07-05 08:42:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

The Rainbow Goobert plush campaign will end in a week, so pre-order one now!

Here's the link: https://www.makeship.com/products/rainbow-goobert-plush
Thank you for your support! - Doro and Mario

[ 2024-06-29 07:56:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone!

Backpack Battles is part of the Steam Summer Sale with a 10% discount! And our biggest update yet is live right now with many new items and quality-of-life features that were requested by you!

The New Items!

We added a total of 15 items of different kinds. There are 5 items that you can buy directly from the shop. This was based on this poll we made on our Discord server btw!
One of these items is the Unidentified Amulet, which transforms into one of 6 different new amulets. We also added 5 new recipes. Within this item set, there are some new mechanics like:

• A weapon that uses stamina to generate Empower
• Items that are Magic, Holy, Dark and Vampiric all at the same time
• The first craftable bag
• A way to damage ranged opponents with Spikes
• And more!

That being said, it is to be expected that some of these new items will require balance adjustments in the future or push existing builds over the edge, so expect balance adjustments in the following weeks until we are happy with the state! Speaking of balance before we get there, here are some quality-of-life highlights of this version:

The combat log has grown more powerful!

[olist]

It now tracks when (de)buffs are reflected, nullified, resisted, protected, or prevented.

When you hover over the entries after battle, it now restores states of items like potions, playing cards etc. as well as cooldowns and Battle Rage.

We also added replay buttons!

The meters now show the totals of damage done and stacks gained etc. and there are new ones for how often weapons missed attacks and were Out-of-stamina, activations and maximum health gained (all with plots!).

In the panel above the combat log, you can choose if you want to see log entries for when an item activates.

Last, but not least music will now play after battle so you can inspect the combat log while listening to some nice medieval soundtrack by alkacrab! [/olist] Also, the inventory now has an Undo/redo feature you can use if your restructuring did not quite work out as you have imagined. Just press Ctrl+Z to undo the last action and Ctrl+Y to redo it. We want to thank everyone who tested the new stuff and reported bugs - this makes it possible for us to add new content so quickly. And now to the change log, including all that is new and balance changes!

But wait, theres one more thing!

Theres only one week left to order the Rainbow Goobert plushie - so get your colorful cuddly blob now!

Full Changelog for 0.9.12

New Content & Features

• NEW ITEM: Prismatic Orb
• NEW ITEM: Unidentified Amulet (+Amulet of Life, Amulet of Feasting, Amulet of Energy, Amulet of the Wild, Amulet of Alchemy, Amulet of Steel)
• NEW ITEM (Reaper): Toad
• NEW RECIPE: Prismatic Sword
• NEW RECIPE: Stone Golem
• NEW ITEM: Shiny Shell
• NEW RECIPE: Shell Totem
• NEW ITEM: Oil Lamp
• NEW ITEM: Maneki-neko
• NEW RECIPE: Box of Prosperity
• Added an UNDO FUNCTION! You can go back to old inventory placements with Ctrl+Z, redo with Ctrl+Y, define snapshots with Ctrl+ [1 to 9], and load them by pressing the same number (this only affects placements and can of course not revert buy/sell/crafting etc.)
• Added a summer-themed outfit for each chibi
• Item tooltips now update in real-time during combat
• Added new BGM for battle when in Survival mode, and for after battle (before and during Survival

Combat Log

• Added totals to meters
• Added meters & plots for weapon misses, item activations, maximum health gained, weapons out-of-stamina
• Added entries when (de)buffs are reflected, nullified, resisted, protected, prevented etc.
• You can show/minimize/hide activation entries using the panel above the combat log
• Hovering entries after battle now restores states of items like potions, playing cards etc. as well as cooldowns, battle rage, and replays the related animations, damage numbers etc.
• Added replay buttons to combat log

Balancing

Neutral

• Debuffs that are reflected can no longer be reflected a second time
• Reworked Burning Torch: Heat threshold is removed, chance increased
• Mana Orb: Now only triggers once. Mana cost 30 -> 35, buffs gained 12 -> 17
• Djinn Lamp: Now only triggers once
• Blueberry, Crown, Holy Spear, King Crown, and King Goobert now have the Magic type
• Glowing Crown: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.4s
• King Crown: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.4s
• King Goobert: Invulnerability 1.2s -> 1.3s
• Spear: Minimum damage +1
• Holy Spear: Cooldown 1.4s -> 2.5s, damage 5-12 -> 13-18, Block removal 6 -> 10
• Holy Armor: Block 55 -> 60
• Corrupted Armor: Block 70 -> 75
• Spectral Dagger: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.3s
• Potion Belt: Cleanses 4 -> 5
• Protective Purse: Block 12 -> 13
• Stone Helm: Block 30 -> 35
• Crossblades: Damage +3
• Thornbloom: Chance to gain Empower 40% -> 50%, damage +1
• Emerald (Inventory): More & faster Regeneration
• Sapphire (Inventory): More & faster Cold
• Tim: Critical hit and debuff resistance 30% -> 25%, cost 11g -> 10g
• Hammer: Stun chance 50% -> 45%

Pyromancer

• Burning Banner: Cooldown 3.4s -> 3.6s, Blind chance 30% -> 50%
• Friendly Fire: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.4s
• Dark Lantern: Debuffs per Dark item 9 -> 8

Berserker

• Reworked Wolf Emblem: No longer gives debuff resistance, now gives Empower or Block based on your current Block.
• Anvil: Now affects a second weapon, damage bonus 2 -> 1

Ranger

• Mega Clover: Buff threshold 20 -> 15, Buff amount 40 -> 25
• Bow and Arrow, Belladonnas Whisper, Tusk Piercer, Fortunas Grace: Stamina usage 1.5 -> 1.2
• Belladonnas Whisper: Damage needed per Poison 7 -> 6
• Carrot: Cooldown 4s -> 3.5s

Fixes

• Fixed a second Deck of Cards being available under very specific circumstances
• Fixed a visual glitch when both players were in Battle Rage or invulnerable
• Changed how Heroic Potion works internally, it now always creates a single log entry and issues with the Impractically Large Greatsword should be resolved
• Fixed visual glitch when healing a try-heart

Other

• Added activation animations for Mr. Struggles, Ruby Chonk, Cauldron
• Added new sounds for Squirrel, Rat, Snake, Dragons, and items made of Fire & Ice
• Added hover particles for Cauldron
• Added a click tolerance for shop items to make them easier to grab
• Its now possible to grab a single item from the storage box by box-selecting it
• Item library, options, character sheet: Lots of things now respond to hover
• When crafting something from an item with gems inside, gems are now placed into the crafted item
• Steam Deck: Removed options that are specific to desktop

Item Library

• Filters (like the rarity) can now be right-clicked to apply it as an exclusive filter, and right-clicked twice to apply all except this one
• Catalysts (crafting ingredients that are not consumed) are now marked on the info panel
• Items now display their sockets when hovered

[ 2024-06-28 09:00:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

The 5 more items we teased last time are now ready to be tested and are freely available on the beta branch!
The whole Summer Update, including all the items is planned to go to the main branch on Friday 28th of this month (thats in one week). So, to the new items! Shiny Shell is a cheap Holy item that heals once, with increasing efficiency based on adjacent Holy items. It can be crafted into the Shell Totem, which is a source of healing and Empower that uses stamina. The Oil Lamp is an Epic shop item that scales an affected weapons damage and accuracy. Then, there is the new Legendary item, the Maneki Neko: When the combined gold value of surrounding items is high enough it increases sales chance, prevents crits and increases the speed of Godly and Unique items! And finally, there is the first craftable bag with the Box of Prosperity, which keeps part of the functionality of a Box of Riches, while adding space to your inventory.

Combat Log

We have also been working away on the combat log, adding many visual improvements, logging more combat stuff (resisted debuffs, nullified buffs, protected buffs, reflected debuffs...), and counting (like misses, activations, ). With that, we plan to move on to the next big feature soon. The patch also has a set of quality-of-life improvements and UI polish.

Rainbow Goobert Plush

You can still order the plushie! We need to reach 200 sold plushies for them to be made. And it's only available for a limited time, so order your own Rainbow Goob now!

The Beta Branch

On our Discord server, you can find instructions on how to join the beta. Also, it's the perfect place to let us know when you encounter bugs or crashes. The new items and combat log changes are expected to have some bugs, so please test everything thoroughly! The beta branch has a separate progress from the main branch, and you can switch back any time. Anyway, have fun testing all the new things, and stay tuned for our biggest update yet next Friday! :)

[ 2024-06-21 08:46:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are joining the Games Baked in Germany event!

Get Backpack Battles now with a 10% discount! And don't forget to check out the event!

[ 2024-06-20 18:16:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

we have lots of news! There are many things to talk about, so before we get into detail, here is a short summary:

• You can order Rainbow Goobert on makeship NOW!
• The beta branch is up! You can access and test all the items teased in the previous post.
• Also on the beta branch, the combat log now tracks cooldowns and many other things, and we finally have an auto-advance mode! (That will get more and more similar to the actual fight with future updates)
• And (surprise!!), there are more item teasers! So the next update will be a big one.

Rainbow Goobert Plush

You can now order the plushie! We need to reach 200 sold plushies for them to be made. And it's only available for a limited time, so order your own Rainbow Goob now!

The Beta Branch

On our Discord server, you can find instructions on how to join the beta. Also, it's the perfect place to let us know when you encounter bugs or crashes. The new items and combat log changes are expected to have some bugs, so please test everything thoroughly! The beta branch has a separate progress from the main branch, and you can switch back any time.

New Items

The new items you can test on the beta branch right now are: The Prismatic Orb is a Godly item that is Vampiric, Magic, Holy, and Dark, and synergizes with all these types! You can use it to make the Prismatic Sword, which uses the same synergies, but well, to punch people. Then there are the new Amulets: Rare items that reveal their effect only after you buy them, and synergize with different build paths. Currently, there are 6 different effects it can gain! Then, as promised, there is the Toad, to give Reaper another pet to choose from. It synergizes with gaining and using different buffs! And finally, there is the Stone Golem, a strong fellow that can attack, gain Empower, and stun your opponents! You can craft him on any class.

Combat Log

We are still working our way towards feature completeness of the combat log, so we try to get as many of the requested features in as we can! With the beta update, it can now finally track the states of items like potions, playing cards etc., as well as their current cooldowns. We also added a feature to automatically advance, so you can view the fight again.
There are a few more improvements we want to get in before we go on to the next major feature.

More Items Coming Soon!

And a surprise for you guys! The next update will have 5 more items in it, stay tuned for more teasers on our X page. It wont be too long until you can try them out as well! :)
We often get questions on whether we want to add more items, and the answer is clear: Of course! We have several more sets planned during the early access.

[ 2024-06-14 09:10:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone,

Time for another Backpack Battles patch!

Coming Soon: Item Update!

We have been working intensely on more content, and here is a first little teaser for the things coming up. Follow us to stay tuned for more info soon!

New in 0.9.11: Combat Log Update

Also its time for another patch! This week, we have more improvements to the combat log, which now allows you to filter for different things. This includes the commonly requested text search. You can also click on "You" and "Opponent" to filter the log. You can now also see stamina used, gained and removed in the damage meter, we will probably add more metrics soon!

Coming Soon: Backpack Battles Plushie!

And there is another thing in the works: We are teaming up with Makeship to bring you guys a plushie! You may already be able to guess who this could be - stay tuned for more info! You can subscribe to the Makeship page to get notified when the plushie can be preordered.

Full Changelog for 0.9.11

• Combat log can now be filtered by character and using a text search. (The text search field is placed in a new widget above the combat log, currently its lonely there but it will soon get company)
• Added Stamina meter to the combat log (showing which items used, gained and removed stamina from opponent)

Fixes:

• Drop-down lists can now be closed by reselecting the active selection
• Fixed damage meter plots sometimes being in the wrong order
• Fixed some points in the plots being placed at the wrong x position
• Fixed combat log appearing at unexpected places (let us know if it still happens!)

[ 2024-06-07 08:50:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone,

We just started to focus our attention on the combat log. Over the last months, many requests came in, and we will now start working through a lot of them! In this patch, we add one of the bigger ones: Plots for the damage meter. These will give you an overview of how, for example, your damage output developed during the fight.
You can even hide lines by clicking the item entries in the damage meter. Keep in mind that we will probably iterate upon this feature in the future. Now is the perfect time to let us know what you would like to see in the combat log! Some features we consider are: Showing activations, a search function, tracking more properties, and much more. We also decided to do another balance adjustment, bringing up some of the underperforming items and subclasses again.

Full Changelog for 0.9.10

• Added plots to the damage meter!
• Added hotkeys for battle speed: Left Arrow slows, right arrow speeds up, down arrow pauses, and up arrow resumes.

Balancing

Neutral

• Thornbloom: Empower chance 35% -> 40%, damage +1
• Stone Helm: Block 25 -> 30
• Stone Armor: Block 80 -> 90
• King Crown: Invulnerability duration 2s -> 2.5s
• King Goobert: Invulnerability duration 1.0s -> 1.2s
• Protective Purse: Block 10 -> 12
• Hammer: Damage -1

Pyromancer

• Friendly Fire: Heat threshold for 100 damage: 70 -> 60

Berserker

• Spiked Staff: Mana cost 5 -> 4, damage 8-10 -> 6-8
• Power Puppy: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.2s
• Armored Power Puppy: Cooldown 3.0s -> 2.8s

Ranger

• Piercing Arrow: Luck chance 50% -> 55%
• Big Bowl of Treats: Cooldown 4.0s -> 3.5s, food speed increase 20% -> 25%
• Fortunas Grace: Luck 2 -> 3

Reaper

• Mr. Struggles: Speed bonus 120% -> 140%
• Snake: Cooldown 2.4s -> 2.3s
• Cauldron: Mana 5 -> 6
• Staff of Unhealing: Heal 18 -> 20

[ 2024-05-31 08:58:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Last week we added some new items to Backpack Battles. Thank you for the positive feedback, it was great to hear you enjoy the update! Its time for another round of adjustments, mostly with the goal of bringing some underutilized items up a bit.

Awesome new bundle with Potion Craft!

The Backpack Full of Potions Bundle is now available! The bundle has 10% discount, and additionally, Potion Craft is on a 55% discount right now - so you can save a lot with the bundle!
In Potion Craft, you step into the role of an alchemist, experimenting with a variety of ingredients to craft optimal, high-quality brews and establish yourself as the town's master alchemist. Potion Craft was one of our main inspirations for the art style and the tactile mechanics in Backpack Battles. We love this game and we're very hyped they bundled up with us!

Changelog for 0.9.9

Balancing

Neutral

• Serpent Staff: Damage +2
• Critwood Staff: Damage +1
• Spiked Staff: Damage +2
• Thornbloom: Empower chance 30% -> 35%
• King Crown: Mana cost 12 -> 10
• King Goobert: Mana cost 6 -> 5
• Pandamonium: Added 1 star slot
• Ruby Egg / Ruby Whelp: Start of battle Heat 3 -> 4
• Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal 15 -> 17
• Stone Helm: Block 20 -> 25

Pyromancer

• Burning Banner: Cooldown 3.2s -> 3.4s
• Draconic Orb: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.8s
• Staff of Fire: Damage +2
• Burning Blade: Damage +1

Berserker

• Shaman Mask: Cooldown 3.2s -> 3.4s
• Wolf Emblem: Crit chance per pet 10% -> 12%
• Double Axe: Cooldown 2s -> 1.8s

Ranger

• Hedgehog: Block 10 -> 15
• Rat: Poison chance 70% -> 75%
• Piercing Arrow: Critical damage bonus 35% ->40%
• Bow and Arrow: Cost 8g -> 7g
• Belladonnas Whisper: Damage to inflict Poison 8 -> 7

Reaper

• Miss Fortune: Cooldown 2.3s -> 2.1s
• Snake: Health per pet: 30 -> 40
• Demonic Flask: Cost 8g -> 7g
• Cauldron: Heal 17 -> 20

Fixes

• Fixed a bug with cloud saves for started runs
• Lump of Coal (armor) now benefits from King Crown / King Goobert
• Platinum Customer Card is now affected by Piggy Bank and activates at the start of battle

Other

• Some wording improvements
• Added an animation when Sun Shield deals damage

[ 2024-05-24 09:00:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone,

today we have a huge content update! The biggest one since we launched into Early Access two months ago. We want to thank everyone who tested the patch on the beta branch and reported issues

New Items

This patch comes with 5 new craftable items:

King Crown

Protects buffs and makes gems socketed inside more effective.

King Goobert

A royal species of Goobert that heals, protects buffs, and makes gemstones socketed inside stronger.

Serpent Staff

Neutral Magic Staff upgrade that applies ramping Poison.

Spiked Staff

Berserker finally has her own staff! This one generates Empower.

Thornbloom

Weapon that generates Spikes and Empower and increases your health when you gain Empower stacks.

New Pyromancer Outfit

This outfit is inspired by the Obsidian dragon and now available to unlock in the wardrobe!

Item Info Panel

In the item library, you can now find a new panel that shows information for every item such as

• Its gold cost
• Which classes can buy or craft it
• How often you found the item, how often you bought it in the shop
• Your top win counter and your best rank when surviving with the item in your backpack
• Flavor text (currently not all items have their own text yet, we're working on it!)
• Its crafting ingredients and/or gate item

Your stats will be recorded from 0.9.8 onward. We will add more information to the panel based on your feedback! To switch between the filters and this info panel, click the tabs on the top right or press arrow keys/trigger buttons on your controller. You can also earn stars now! Every item can have a Bronze, Silver or Gold star, or a Diamond, depending on how far you made it with it in your backpack. In the item library, press Alt to show the medals directly on the items. With the new items we make some balance adjustments, there will probably be more changes next week when we can judge the impact the new items have on the meta.

Full changelog for 0.9.8

New Content

• Added Serpent Staff
• Added Spiked Staff
• Added Thornbloom
• Added King Crown
• Added King Goobert
• Added item info panel
• Added item records at the end of a run
• Added new outfit for Pyromancer

Balancing & Item Changes

Neutral

• Platinum Customer Card: Now also gives 10% chance to protect your buffs from removal
• Stone: Cooldown 2.7s -> 2.5s
• Stone Helm: Stun resist chance 25% -> 30%
• Divine Potion: Cost 9g -> 8g
• Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal 14 -> 15
• Ruby Egg/Whelp: Heat 2 -> 3
• Skull Badge: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.0s
• Wolf Badge: Speed increase 15% -> 20%
• Blood Harvester: Cost 10g -> 9g

Pyromancer

• Burning Blade: Damage +1
• Dragon Nest: Now guarantees to find a Dragon egg after buying
• Frozen Flame: Now guarantees to find an Ice item after buying

Berserker

• Dragonscale Armor: Damage reduction 13% -> 10%
• Spiked Collar: Cost 5g -> 6g
• Anvil: Removed 1 star slot
• Shaman Mask: Now guarantees to find Rune after buying
• Wolf Emblem: Bow guarantees to find a Wolf Puppy after buying

Ranger

• Piercing Arrow: Luck chance 45% -> 50%
• Belladonnas Shade: Maximum damage +2
• Tusk Piercer: Bonus damage 8 -> 9
• Big Bowl of Treats: Now guarantees to find a Friend of the forest after buying

Reaper

• Nocturnal Lock Lifter: Vampiric item bonus lifesteal: 9% -> 10%, base lifesteal: 20% -> 25%
• Miss Fortune: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.3s
• Snake: Added a star slot
• Strong Demonic Flask: Damage 0.40 -> 0.45
• Strong Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal 30% -> 35%, duration 5s -> 6s
• Mr. Struggles: Now guarantees to find a Plushie after buying

Fixes:

• Fixed multiple Badger Runes (Armor) not stacking
• (Strong) Demonic Potion can now crit

Other Changes:

• Added Burning Coal and Burning Torch to the recipe book

[ 2024-05-17 08:58:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

The beta branch is up now! We added 5 new recipes, please test them and let us know when you find any bugs with them. Also, please check out the item info tab in the item library, and related to this, the record popup shown after a game in the bottom left. You can now gain medals for winning with items in your backpack. The changes will go to the main branch when everything is cleaned up and all translations are done, which we expect to be around Friday next week - but we will see how things go. There are no balance changes applied to the beta branch, these will be done when the patch goes live. Instructions on how to join the beta are on our Discord server. Please report any bugs you encounter there so we can finish version 0.9.8 and bring it to the main branch soon!

0.9.8 BETA Patch Notes:

New Content

• Added Serpent Staff
• Added Spiked Staff
• Added Thornbloom
• Added King Crown
• Added King Goobert
• Added item info panel
• Added item medals/records
• Added new outfit for Pyromancer

Fixes:

• Fixed multiple Badger Runes (Armor) not stacking
• (Strong) Demonic Potion can now crit

Other:

• Platinum Customer Card: Now also gives 10% chance to protect your buffs from removal
• Added Burning Coal and Burning Torch to the recipe book

Hot Bundles:

Also, we are excited to offer you two awesome bundles with a 10% discount! Both Backpack Hero and BlazBlue Entropy Effect are incredible games you should not miss out on! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41490 https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41491

[ 2024-05-10 09:07:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone!

As we already teased, the time has come to reduce the frequency of balance patches. So there will be no balance patch this week. We will still make changes pretty regularly, just not every single week. We think the game is at a point where the meta needs more time to settle, and players could use more time to experiment with things as they are. That being said, after we add new content, we will be quick with adjustments if necessary. This will also give us more time to work on new things, like those we are about to show you!

Coming Up: Crafted Item Set

We are working on more items, and this is the next set that is coming up! It will come to the beta branch soon. Join our Discord server to find out how to join the beta.

Coming Soon: Item Info Panel

We are also working on an item statistics panel that tracks information about the items you have acquired! We often get asked when Steam achievements will be added, and the answer is: With the 1.0 release. But this might scratch the same itch for some of you! It will be accessible from the item library and look like this:

[ 2024-05-03 07:24:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

It's patch day! We have some balancing adjustments for you today, and a new outfit for the Berserker. You can unlock it with trophies in the Wardrobe.
Backpack Battles is on sale from now until May 5th! If you have not picked the game up yet, now is the perfect time to get it with a 10% discount. Also, Steam has finally verified Backpack Battles for the Steam Deck! You can play using the touchscreen or simply with controller. Did you find a bug or do you want to talk about the game? Join our Discord server!

Patch Notes for 0.9.7

• Added new outfit for the Berserker

Balancing Changes:

Neutral

• Leaf Badge: Cooldown 3s -> 2.5s
• Skull Badge: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.2s
• Flame Badge: Heat 3 -> 4
• Blood Harvester: Cost 11g -> 10g
• VIllain Sword: 11g -> 10g
• Stone: Cooldown 3s -> 2.7s
• Falcon Blade: Cooldown 1.8s -> 1.7s
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cooldown 1.3s -> 1.4s
• Impractically Large Greatsword: Empowered Cooldown / Stamina Cost 2.2 -> 2.0
• Lightsaber: Blind 7 -> 8
• Divine Potion: Cleanse threshold 20 -> 10 debuffs
• Ruby Egg: Now also gains 2 Heat start of battle
• Stone Armor: Health-based Block 30% -> 35%

Pyromancer

• Burning Banner: Cooldown 3s -> 3.2s
• Phoenix: Health cost 12 -> 11
• Dark Lantern: Debuffs per Dark item 8 -> 9
• Frozen Flame: Heat threshold for Cold 7 -> 6

Berserker

• Brass Knuckles: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.6s
• Shaman Mask: Cooldown 3s -> 3.2s
• Chain Whip: Cooldown 2.3s -> 2.4s
• Busted Blade: Cooldown and stamina cost during Battle Rage 2.8 -> 3.0
• Dragonscale Armor: Damage reduction 15% -> 13%
• Deerwood Guardian: Battle Rage bonus duration 0.6s -> 0.8s
• Anvil: Increased number of * slots by 1

Ranger

• Yggdrasil Leaf: Reduced number of * slots by 1
• Piercing Arrow: Luck gain chance 40% -> 45%
• Big Bowl of Treats: Food speed increase 15% -> 20%
• Carrot: Empower chance 50% -> 55%
• Belladonnas Shade: Maximum damage +3

Reaper

• Snake: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.4s
• Miss Fortune: Cooldown 3s -> 2.5s
• Nocturnal Lock Lifter: Lifesteal Bonus 8% -> 9%
• Cauldron: Heal 15 -> 17
• Strong Divine Potion: Cleanse threshold 20 -> 10, Cleanse amount 13 -> 10
• Strong Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal 20% -> 30%
• Ruby Chonk: Damage +1

Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where a Unique item could appear in shop despite being at Unique limit

[ 2024-04-26 09:01:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone,

Its time for another patch! Its the first week where Pyromancers were not on top of the charts, so rejoice, Pyromancer players, there wont be major nerfs for you this time. While this does not mean that class balance is perfect, we are getting closer. This patch will mostly focus on subclass balance now and start a journey to get them all viable! Found a bug or just want to talk about the game? Join our Discord server!

Patch Notes for 0.9.6 - Balancing Changes

Neutral

• Rainbow Badge: Activation delay 6s -> 7s
• Stone Badge: Item value 2g -> 1g
• Skull Badge: Cooldown 3s -> 2.5s
• Flame Badge: Heat 2 -> 3
• Magic Staff: Cooldown 2.0s -> 1.8s
• Hero Longsword: Damage +2
• Falcon Blade: Cooldown 1.9s -> 1.8s
• Stone: Cooldown 3.2s -> 3s

Pyromancer

• Dragon Nest: Luck 3 -> 2, Heat 3 -> 2
• Dark Lantern: Debuffs 7 -> 8
• Friendly Fire: Heat required for 100 damage 80 -> 70
• Flame Whip: Stamina Cost 1.7 -> 1.5
• Staff of Fire: Damage gain 5 -> 6, base damage -2

Berserker

• Brass Knuckles: Cooldown 2.3s -> 2.5s
• Chain Whip: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.3s
• Anvil: Damage bonus 1 -> 2, stamina bonus 3% -> 4%, number of * slots 9 -> 7

Ranger

• Yggdrasil Leaf: Number of * slots reduced from 10 to 8
• Piercing Arrow: Block removal 10 -> 15
• Big Bowl of Treats: Food speed bonus 10% -> 15%
• Belladonna's Shade: Damage 2-3 -> 2-6

Reaper

• Nocturnal Locklifter: Vampirism 3 -> 4, lifesteal per Vampiric item 7 -> 8
• Mr. Struggles: Bonus trigger speed 100% -> 120%
• Miss Fortune: Cooldown 1.8s -> 3.0s, buffs gained 2 -> 3
• Snake: Cooldown 2.6s -> 2.5s
• Cauldron: Mana 4 -> 5, Heat 4 -> 5
• Staff of Unhealing: Heal 16 -> 18
• Reverse!: Buff Steal 2-> 3
• Jimbo: Random buffs 5 -> 6
• White-Eyes Blue Dragon: Cold 3 -> 4

Fixes and Other Changes

• Death Scythe now affects Dark Lantern
• Item library now uses icons for classes
• Moved reroll rope up so it does not cover larger items

[ 2024-04-19 08:52:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone!

Last week, we added 6 Unique Badges to the game and were happy that you guys are having fun with them! In this patch, we play around with their drop distribution a bit. Let's see how we all think about this in a week! Balance-wise, subclass variety goes in the right direction. But we can clearly see that Pyromancer is still a bit too strong and Berserker also performed very well, so there will be some nerfs. Dont worry, if we find something was over-nerfed we will be quick to bring it back up! We also keep an eye on Eggscalibur builds, but at this specific point in time, we don't see the need to adjust them again.

Balancing Changes

Neutral

• Badges now have a 10% chance to appear in the first 3 rounds (previously 25%/3%/3%)
• Wolf Badge: Trigger speed bonus 20% -> 15%
• Rainbow Badge: Activation delay 5s -> 6s
• Stone Badge: Block 5 -> 4
• Steel Goobert: Block 14 -> 13
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cooldown 1.4s -> 1.3s
• Hero Longsword: Damage +2
• Falcon Blade: Cooldown 2.0s -> 1.9s
• Crossblades: Cooldown 1.5s -> 1.4s
• Strong Health Potion: Regeneration 2 -> 3
• Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal 12 -> 14
• Pandamonium: Damage +1
• Impractically Large Greatsword: Buffed stamina cost 2.5 -> 2.2, cooldown 2.5s -> 2.2s
• Protective Purse: Block 8 -> 10

Pyromancer

• Dragon Nest: Heat 5 -> 3, Heal 5 -> 4
• Burning Sword: Heat chance 50% -> 40%
• Burning Blade: damage -1
• Phoenix: Health loss 10 -> 12
• Molten Spear: Damage 6 - 10 -> 4 - 9
• Sun Armor: Heal 15 -> 12
• Staff of Fire: damage +2
• Flame Whip: Cooldown 2.0s -> 1.7s

Berserker

• Brass Knuckles: Cooldown 2.1s -> 2.3s
• Anvil: Damage bonus 2 -> 1
• Chain Whip: Cooldown 2.1s -> 2.2s
• Busted Blade: Battle Rage stamina cost 3.0 -> 2.8, cooldown 3.0s -> 2.8s

Ranger

• Yggdrasil Leaf: Mana 1 -> 2, Heal 10 -> 5
• Piercing Arrow: Bonus crit damage 30% -> 35%, Block removal 8 -> 10
• Belladonnas Shade: Chance 60% -> 70%
• Critwood Staff: Duration 1.0s -> 1.2s

Reaper

• Staff of Unhealing: Heal +1
• Nocturnal Lock Lifter: Lifesteal per Vampiric item 5% -> 7%
• Cauldron: Heal 12 -> 15, Heat 3 -> 4
• The Fool: Speed boost 40% -> 50%
• Holo Fire Lizard: Heat 3 -> 4
• Darkest Lotus: Cost 8g -> 7g
• Strong Divine Potion: Random buffs 7 -> 8
• Strong Vampiric Potion: Vampirism 2 -> 3

Bugfixes and Other Changes

• Fixed Stone Badge preventing class items from showing up in the shop after selling it
• Fixed an issue causing items to be non-interactable
• Fixed wardrobe button still saying Close Wardrobe after closing the wardrobe
• Blue crafting lines now also show for recipes from a different class
• Reworded Badges to make clear only the shop is affected

[ 2024-04-12 08:56:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

We released Backpack Battles exactly 4 weeks ago, and we can say that it's been a massive success! The game means a lot to us, and we will continue to make it the best game we can Today we have some more experimental changes for you! This patch adds badges, which are unique items that can be found at any point during a run, but have an especially high chance in the first round (25%!). They are designed to add variety and give you runs that otherwise would be impossible. We add 6 badges, and all of them alter which class items you have access to. Lets all test this out, and see how we like it. It is to be expected that we adjust the frequency, and if we all decide we like the feature, we will probably add more badges as well.
Also, we are having a poll on Discord and in our Chinese community. So far, there are 3 main takeaways for us:

• You guys want a high variance class - so the Adventurer will be made to cover this!
• You want more Uniques - so we will keep adding those!
• And you want more items in the base pool - which we already started designing!

Balance-wise, Ranger, Reaper and Berserker seem even. Pyromancers still perform very well, but the gap isnt large, so we will adjust very carefully. The goal of this patch is to lift up the subclasses and items that dont see a lot of play yet. We will continue with weekly patches until we feel like every subclass is viable in some situation! - Dorothea and Mario

New Content

• ADDED 6 UNIQUE BADGES - They can appear in every round, with an increased chance of 25% in round 1. You cannot obtain a Leaf Badge as a Ranger etc.

• Leaf Badge
• Skull Badge
• Flame Badge
• Wolf Badge
• Rainbow Badge
• Stone Badge

Balancing

• Base Unique chance is increased to 3% (old Uniques can still only appear from round 4 onwards)
• Balance relevant fix: Shields did not remove stamina when the opponent had less than the amount that should be removed, missing chances to remove stamina. Reduced Block chance to 30% to compensate (keep in mind this is hard to predict and might require more adjustments in the future)

Neutral

• Burning Torch: Damage 2-4 -> 2-3, Heat required for bonus scaling 8 -> 12
• Eggscalibur: Cooldown 1.5s -> 1.6s
• Steel Goobert: Block 16 -> 14
• Impractically Large Greatsword: Buffed stamina usage 3 -> 2.5, buffed cooldown 3s -> 2.5s
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cooldown 1.5s -> 1.4s, stamina cost 1.0 -> 0.8
• Fanfare: Cooldown 4.5s -> 4.0s
• Health Potion: Heal 11 -> 12
• Strong Health Potion: Heal 18 -> 20
• Vampiric Potion: Life steal 10 -> 12
• Platinum Customer Card: Unique chance 10% -> 15%
• Heart Container: Health bonus 80 -> 90
• Heart of Darkness: Health bonus 80 -> 90
• Gloves of Power: Block 4 -> 5
• Stone: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.2s, Block removal 3 -> 4
• Protective Purse: Block 7 -> 8
• Pineapple: Heal 3 -> 4
• Thorn Whip: Cooldown 2.4s -> 2.2s, stamina cost 2.4 -> 2.2
• Bloodthorne: Cooldown 1.7s -> 1.6s, stamina cost 1.8 -> 1.6
• Hungry Blade: Cooldown 1.7 -> 1.6, damage +1
• Pandamonium: Damage +2
• Hero Longsword: Damage +1
• Falcon Blade: Damage +1
• Lightsaber: Damage +1
• Magic Staff: Damage +1

Pyromancer

• Burning Sword: Damage -1
• Draconic Orb: Cooldown 3.0s -> 3.5s
• Sun Armor: Heal 17 -> 15
• Obsidian Dragon: Heat required for bonus attack 22 -> 26
• Dark Lantern: Debuffs per Dark item 6 -> 7
• Molten Dagger: Damage +2
• Molten Spear: Block removal 4 -> 5, bonus damage 3 -> 5
• Flame Whip: Heat 3 -> 4, cooldown 1.7s -> 2.0s
• Staff of Fire: Damage +2

Berserker

• Brass Knuckles: Cooldown 2.0s -> 2.1s
• Chain Whip: Cooldown 2.3s -> 2.1s, Stamina Cost 2.3 -> 2.1
• Deerwood Guardian: Battle rage bonus duration 0.5s -> 0.6s
• Wolf Emblem: Empower requirement 5 -> 3
• Elephant Rune / Badger Rune / Hawk Rune: Cost 5g -> 4g
• Dragonskin Boots: Block 8 -> 12, Cold resistance 25% - 20%
• Busted Blade: Bonus damage per Empower 4 -> 5
• Forging Hammer: Cost 6g -> 3g. If you sell your Forging Hammer or have a Wolf Badge or Rainbow Badge, you can now find it again in the shop.

Ranger

• Big Bowl of Treats: Trigger twice chance 25% -> 20%, Food speed bonus 5% -> 10%
• Yggdrasil Leaf: Heal 8 -> 10
• Piercing Arrow: Block removal 5 -> 8
• Fortunas Hope: Luck chance 60% -> 70%, accuracy 85% -> 100%
• Belladonnas Shade: Inflict chance 70% -> 60%, Poison 1 -> 2
• Belladonnas Whisper: Damage required to generate Poison 9 -> 8
• Tusk Piercer: Start of Battle Spikes 2 -> 3
• Carrot Goobert: Empower Duration 4s -> 5s

Reaper

• Snake: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.6s
• Miss Fortune: Cooldown 2.0s -> 1.8s
• Cauldron: Now heals 12, gains 4 Mana or 3 Heat, has Magic type
• The Fool: Cost 5g -> 4g
• Jimbo: Cost 6g -> 5g
• Staff of Unhealing: Heal +1
• Ruby Chonk: Damage +2
• Reworked Nocturnal Lock Lifter: No longer lifesteals through Poison, increases weapon lifesteal based on Vampiric items now
• Mrs. Struggles: Now triggers 10% faster for each * Dark item, cooldown: 3s -> 3.5s
• Strong Demonic Flask: Now also triggers when you fall below 25% health

Other Changes

• Improvements to item trigger order, nothing should work based on buy order now, identical trigger conditions either have a static priority (Dark Lantern triggers before other reincarnates) or are randomized
• Djinn Lamp now shows the used buffs as used in the log
• The game now supports rich presence, so you can see what your Steam friends are doing in the game

[ 2024-04-05 08:58:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Time for more balancing! The last 2 patches brought us closer, but there are still things to do. While Ranger, Reaper and Berserker seem even, Pyromancer still overperforms despite the previous nerfs. So Pyromancer gets another rounds of nerfs until it is in line with the other three. Dont worry, Pyromancer players, if this shows to be too harsh, we will buff them back up next week! For Ranger, Reaper and Berserker we now even out the subclasses, mostly by buffing the weaker ones.

0.9.3 Balance Changes

Neutral

• Pineapple: Cooldown 4s -> 3.5s
• Fanfare: Cooldown 5s -> 4.5s
• Pandamonium: Now has one more * slot, damage -3
• Ice Dragon: Cold threshold 20 -> 12, Block gain 50 -> 35
• Burning Torch: Damage gain chance 30% -> 25%, damage -1, Heat threshold 15 -> 8
• Thorn Whip: Stamina usage 2.5 -> 2.4
• Dancing Dragon: Damage per Heat: 1.0 -> 0.5, Heat / Luck per Magic item: 1 -> 2
• Sapphire (Weapon): Chances reduced

Pyromancer

• Fire Pit: Health bonus per Fire item: 5 -> 4
• Frostbite: Chance to inflict Cold 70% -> 60%
• Obsidian Dragon: Heat needed for bonus attack 15 -> 22
• Phoenix: Health per Heat: 7 -> 6
• Burning Sword: Change to gain Heat 60% -> 50%
• Draconic Orb: Critical hits 4 ->3, cooldown 2.5s -> 3s
• Sun Armor: Heal 20 -> 17
• Flame Whip: Cooldown 2.0s -> 1.7s, stamina usage 2.0 -> 1.7
• Staff of Fire: +1 damage
• Molten Dagger: +1 damage
• Molten Spear: +1 damage

Berserker

• Axe / Double Axe: Cooldown 1.9s -> 2.0s
• (Armored) Courage Puppy: Cooldown 4s -> 3.5s
• Power Puppy: Cooldown 4s -> 3.5s
• Armored Power Puppy: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.0s
• Badger Rune / Elephant Rune / Hawk Rune: Cost 6g -> 5g
• Chain Whip: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2.3s, stamina usage: 2.5 -> 2.3
• Ranger
• Mega Clover: Bonus sale chance: 6% -> 5%
• Hedgehog: Spikes 1 -> 2
• Rat: Chance to inflict Poison 50% -> 70%, chance to inflict Blind 15% -> 10%
• Yggdrasil Leaf: Heal 5 -> 8
• Poison Ivy: Poison threshold 19 -> 18, bonus damage 20% -> 25%
• Belladonnas Shade: Poison/debuff inflict chance 60% -> 70%
• Fortunas Hope: Luck chance 50% -> 60%
• Carrot: Luck requirement: 5 -> 4

Reaper

• Snake: Cleanse resist chance 5% -> 4%, Cooldown 2s -> 2.2s
• Nocturnal Lock Lifter: Vampirism 2 -> 3
• Cauldron: Cooldown 4s -> 3s
• Strong Mana Potion: Mana 7 -> 9
• Strong Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal 13% -> 20%
• Strong Divine Potion: Cleanses 12 -> 13, random buffs 5 -> 7
• Staff of Unhealing: Heal +1
• Mrs. Struggles: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3s
• Miss Fortune: Cooldown 2.5s -> 2s
• The Fool: Speed bonus 35% -> 40%
• Ace of Spades / Reverse! / White-Eyes Blue Dragon / Holo Fire Lizard: Cost -1

Other Changes

Fixes:

• Stamina usage can no longer get negative
• Strong Mana Potion / Divine Potion now mix colors correctly with other potions
• Wardrobe now works with controller

Other:

• Tutorial prompts now show controller buttons when played with controller

[ 2024-03-29 10:11:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have a special surprise for you today!

Can't Put It Down!

To celebrate our participation in Steam's Deckbuilders Fest, we collaborated with Balatro for the "Can't Put It Down" bundle - and it's live now! Get both Backpack Battles and Balatro for a 10% discount - or complete the bundle if you already own one of the games. https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/38429 Balatro is a roguelike deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos. We love it!

Jimbo is here!

That's why we decided to add our version of Balatro's most prominent Joker Jimbo to Backpack Battles:
Jimbo is a Playing Card, which means you can buy him in the shop when you play as Reaper and have a Deck of Cards in your inventory. His effect changes based on the cards before him in the card chain - you need sets of two, three, or four of the same playing cards. To make the most use of him, place him late in the card chain and count the number of pairs, triplets, and quads.

Harlequin Reaper Outfit

And that's not all - this update also comes with a new Poker-themed outfit for the Reaper - dress her up as Harlequin! As always, you can unlock it in the Wardrobe with trophies, and mix-and-match it with the other outfits!
Both Jimbo and the outfit are part of version 0.9.2c which is live now!

Changelog 0.9.2c

• NEW ITEM: Jimbo
• New outfit for the Reaper

Fixes:

• Death Scythe now affects Belladonnas Shade
• Armored Courage Puppy can no longer be blocked by Sun Shield and Moon Shield
• Potential fix for combat log appearing at random positions, let us know if it still happens
• Fixed items not lighting up when grabbed from a distance from storage box
• Pyromancers first Chibi skin now shows the correct icon

[ 2024-03-25 17:07:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

It's been two weeks since Backpack Battles released into Early Access. This week, we overhauled the title screen, it's still work-in-progress but we think its cleaner already! Also, its time for more balance adjustments. The last patch helped bring the new classes more in line, but especially the Pyromancer was still very strong. The goal of this patch is to bring Berserker and Pyromancer more in line and to nerf some of the dominant subclasses. We will monitor the effect of these changes and will make more adjustments next week!

Changelog 0.9.2

Neutral

• Burning Torch: Chance to gain extra damage 35% -> 30%
• Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal 8 -> 10
• Eggscalibur: Mana cost 12 -> 11
• Sapphire (Weapon): Reduced chance for Regular, Flawless, and Perfect
• Sapphire (Inventory): Reduced delay by 1s
• Topaz (Inventory): Reduced stamina for Common, Flawed, and Perfect

Pyromancer

• Frozen Flame: Heat needed to generate Cold 5 -> 7
• Dark Lantern: Damage per Fire item 7 -> 5
• Friendly Fire: Cooldown 3s -> 3.5s
• Sun Armor: Heal 25 -> 20
• Chili Goobert: Activations 5 -> 6
• Sun Shield: Block needed to deal damage 10 -> 12
• Flame Whip: Damage when using Spike 6 -> 8
• Obsidian Dragon: Damage +1

Berserker

• Axe: Cooldown 1.7s -> 1.9s
• Double Axe: Cooldown 1.7s -> 1.9s
• Forging Hammer: Sell value 5 -> 3
• Brass Knuckles: Cooldown 1.7s -> 2.0s
• Anvil: Stamina reduction 4% -> 3%
• (Armored) Wisdom Puppy: Block +2

Ranger

• Mega Clover: Sale chance bonus 8% -> 6%
• Big Bowl of Treats: Chance to activate pets twice 30% -> 25%
• Balance-relevant fix: Hedgehog can now actually crit
• Belladonnas Shade: Trigger chance 50% -> 60%

Reaper

• Staff of Unhealing: Heal 12 -> 13
• Cauldron: Cooldown 5s -> 4s
• Mrs. Struggles: Cooldown 4s -> 3.5s
• Miss Fortune: Cooldown 3s -> 2.5s
• Strong Vampiric Potion: Lifesteal bonus 10% -> 13%
• Strong Divine Potion: Buffs 4 -> 5
• Strong Mana Potion: Mana 6 -> 7, maximum health 15 -> 20
• Ruby Chonk: Damage +2

[ 2024-03-22 12:25:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone!

We have some more amazing news to share today. We sold over 500,000 copies of Backpack Battles in less than two weeks! We are also getting close to 5,000 reviews, which are still Overwhelmingly Positive. Thanks, everybody, the game literally would not exist without you all! We are busy working on more content, so stay tuned. This amazing artwork was made by Ami, please check out her art!

[ 2024-03-22 09:00:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Backpack Battles was released exactly one week ago! Thank you so much for playing :) By the way, the game is still on sale for another week with a 10% discount! We feel like enough time has passed to judge balance for the first time, and made some adjustments to bring the new classes more in line with the old ones. We will see how these changes affect the game and make more adjustments soon accordingly!

Changelog 0.9.1

Neutral

• Gloves of Power: Block 2 -> 4
• Moon Armor: Mana gained 2 -> 3, Block 40 -> 45
• Emerald (Weapon): Poison Chances increased
• Ruby (Weapon): Lifesteal reduced
• Vampiric Potion is now crafted from a Strong Health Potion using a Blood Amulet. Lifesteal 5 -> 8.

Pyromancer

• Draconic Orb: Crits 5 -> 4
• Burning Sword: Cooldown 1.4s -> 1.6s, Stamina usage 0.7 -> 1.0
• Burning Blade: Damage +1
• Phoenix: Heal per Heat 10 -> 7
• Obsidian Dragon: Damage +5
• Dragon Nest: Heal 7 -> 6
• Dark Lantern: Damage per Fire item 10 -> 7 (balance-relevant fix: it can now gain crit chance from items like Acorn Collar)
• Frozen Flame: Increased chances of finding Ice items

Berserker

• Axe: Cooldown 1.5s -> 1.7s
• Double Axe: Cooldown 1.5s -> 1.7s
• Anvil: Stamina Reduction 5 -> 4
• Brass Knuckles: Cooldown 1.6s -> 1.7s
• Busted Blade: Damage per Empower 3 -> 4
• Wolf Emblem: Increased chances of finding puppies
• Shaman Mask: Increased chances of finding runes

Ranger

• Rat: Pet/Food speed bonus 20% -> 15%, Cooldown 3s -> 4s (balance-relevant fix: they can now actually crit)
• Squirrel: Pet/Food speed bonus 20% -> 15%
• Hedgehog: Pet/Food speed bonus 20% -> 15%
• Belladonnas Shade: Damage 2-10 -> 2-3, now additionally inflicts a random debuff with 50% chance

Reaper

• Cauldron: Also gains speed bonus from adjacent Potions now
• Mrs. Struggles: Cooldown 5s -> 4s
• White-Eyes Blue Dragon: Block per Card 5 -> 6
• Holo Fire Lizard: Base damage 10 -> 12
• Strong Vampiric Potion: Vampirism 1 -> 2
• Staff of Unhealing: Heal 11 -> 12

[ 2024-03-15 09:58:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Backpack Battles has been out for 4 days now! We've been busy fixing bugs and have already pushed some hotfix patches. You can view the recent patch notes ingame by clicking the version number on the bottom right. We also post them on our Discord server. We wanted to address some common technical issues and frequently asked questions.

Steam Deck Issues

For some reason we don't know, Steam doesn't launch the correct build on Steam Deck, and the game instantly crashes when you try to start it up. The workaround to get it to launch is by enabling and disabling Compatibility. In your library click on Backpack Battles, click the cog button on the right, open Properties, Compatibility, check "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool", uncheck again, close properties. It should start normally from that point onward.

Controller support

The game has controller support, and with the 0.9.0f patch, you can reconfigure gamepad inputs in the options. It should display icons that match the controller you're using. Please give feedback, and let us know if you encounter issues, so we can add "Full controller support" to the store page.

Game does not start

This seems to be an issue with missing dependencies on some systems that we are trying to figure out. In many cases, verifying the game files fixes it. We also checked some settings in the backend to hopefully fix this issue.

Family Sharing does not work

We do not know what causes this, and we have contacted Steam support several days ago but haven't got a response yet. We're doing our best to make the game accessible to all of you, thank you for helping us with bug reports etc.! We're also planning a balance patch soon. Thanks for playing, have fun!

Hotfix patch notes

0.9.0b

• Fixed Present related crashes

0.9.0c

Fixes:

• Burning Blade: Fixed not generating Heat
• Duffle Bag: Now triggers with the same condition as Health Potion
• Blood Harvester: Now affects Mega Clover
• Fixed Dragon Nest and Staff of Fire being draggable in combat
• Reapers alternative chibi skin now shows the bag
• Fixed some combat log issues related to Dark Lantern

Other:

• Flame now has a light effect
• Some translation improvements

0.9.0d

• Shield of Valor/Sun Shield/Moon Shield now work with Gloves of Power
• Fixed Impractically Large Greatsword/Busted Blade interaction with Anvil
• Blood Harvester now affects Frostbite
• Death Scythe now affects Emerald Whelp
• Sun Shield can now actually block ranged attacks
• Fixed Lucky Piggy showing a filled star on Obsidian Dragon
• Fixed item tooltip staying on screen after closing item library
• Fixed cursor drift caused by having a controller plugged in

0.9.0e

Fixes:

• Blood Harvester now affects Miss Fortune
• Generated Flames and Lucky Clovers no longer instantly fuse uncontrollably
• Fixed visual tooltip bug with Rats Blind chance when increased by Lucky Piggy
• Fixed Flames sometimes falsely displaying the Holy type
• Combat log: Reincarnate health is now capped at maximum health
• Combat log: Maximum health is now updated correctly

Other:

• Visual: Generated Gems/Flames/Lucky Clovers now move to their slot instead of appearing instantly

0.9.0f

Added gamepad reconfiguration to the options - The game can now be played with controller! Please let us know if you are experiencing technical issues with the controller support! Fixes:

• Fixed Snake not protecting Poison
• Combat log: Battle rage ended is now logged for the correct character
• Spell Scroll: Frostbolt can now be affected by Ranger Bag etc.
• Wolf Emblem is now consistent with its text and only affects weapons

Other:

• Added animation for Spell Scroll: Frostbolt

[ 2024-03-12 16:32:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone,

We are extremely thankful for your support and love for Backpack Battles. We are thrilled to share some news with you! Within less than two days, Backpack Battles has reached 100,000 copies sold. This number has far exceeded our expectations! Thanks to all your reviews, we have now reached a score of Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam! As game developers, all we want is for people to enjoy our game. Having the game resonate with so many of you is a dream come true. We will continue to give our best and make Backpack Battles the best game we can. We are also currently fixing bugs and preparing to create more content, so please look forward to it! Thank you, everyone!

[ 2024-03-09 15:13:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Pack Your Backpacks!

Hi everyone, The time has finally come. Backpack Battles is available on Steam! We are so happy you can finally play what we have been working on all this time, now grab your bag and play! You can now choose between four classes: Ranger, Reaper, Pyromancer, and Berserker! All classes have five subclasses to choose from in the 8th round. There are tons of new content to explore! [previewyoutube=SJAbeIH1f_4;full][/previewyoutube]

Early Access Plans

Our work is not done here. There are plenty of features we want to add during Early Access. And here is our roadmap!
The points are roughly ordered, and multiple things will probably progress in parallel. But the first thing will be to work on the new classes - it is to be expected that there are bugs to fix and balancing to address. Lobbies are a feature that was frequently requested in the past. We have made progress behind the scenes and built a successful proof of concept, but it is a large feature and we dont know how much time it will take. Another feature we planned for so long is to give you guys more statistics about every item in the item library. We feel like it could be really cool to see how often you bought an item, how far you came with it, and for example, what your highest rank win was with that item. We also have been writing flavor texts that we plan to display there. The combat log has been a favorite since we added it, and we plan to work on it more until release. There are a few features that would be helpful, like a search function and a way to see precisely when an item activates. We also plan to touch the ranking system. We cant say too much yet, but it is very well possible that it will be seasonal. With the release, the rankings from the demo were already reset, and it is very possible that with large changes or seasons, there will be more resets. The unique item pool has grown substantially since we introduced it, often with seasonal items. We want to produce many additional Uniques, and we have lots of ideas already! And of course, we will be working on new outfits for the characters. Currently, the new classes have two outfits and two chibi-style outfits.

Full Release

The features that define the end of Early access and the start of full release are the 5th character and Steam achievements. We plan to add the Adventurer, a class that stands over typical class restrictions and starts each round with random items, similar to the Present unique. We received many requests to give the present a larger role, and we think this is the coolest way. This also means that according to plan, the adventurer would not have any (or very few) class-specific items. Also, keep in mind that this is in the concept phase, so its subject to change.

Patches & Demo

Also, we will shift our patch schedule. We are very proud of our streak of 39 consecutive content patches on Sundays, but for the Early Access, we will switch to less regular larger patches. This will give us time to work on the big features we have planned. About the demo: It will remain available both on Steam and itch.io! If youre not sure whether you want to buy the full game, definitely check the demo out!

Hot Bundles

We are excited to offer you two awesome bundles with a 10% discount! Both Slay the Spire and Brotato are incredible games you should not miss out on! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39016 https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39017

Thank You

It is important to us to thank you all. This game has far surpassed our wildest expectations already. As game developers, all we want is for people to enjoy our game. Having the game resonate with so many of you is a dream come true. We will continue to give our best and make Backpack Battles the best game we can. We want to give a shoutout to IndieArk who supported us a lot and even organized a localization into Traditional Chinese for release. If you like the game, the best way to support us is by writing a review on Steam. Reviews are extremely important for visibility on the store and for this game to succeed! We would appreciate it very much. Were looking forward to reading your opinions and discussing the games features on our Discord server. You can also share item ideas and your favorite builds there! Have fun!

[ 2024-03-08 10:00:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone!

Backpack Battles' EA release is coming really close - it's coming next Friday, in 5 days! If you haven't wishlisted yet, now is the time so you get notified when it launches. This week we have a recipe item for you: the Stone Helm. It is a defensive item that is available for both classes.
There are some small polish things we also added, like little labels popping up on items when they give you buffs or inflict debuffs or remove stacks. Those were shown on the characters before, but it's much clearer now.

Support Us!

Come talk to us! Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr Also check out the new wiki, maintained by some awesome community members!

Patch notes for 0.8.4

• NEW RECIPE: Stone Helm

Balance:

• Darksaber: Stamina cost 1.2 -> 1.4
• Heart Container: Empower 3 -> 2
• Heart of Darkness: Empower 5 -> 4
• Stone: Cooldown 4s -> 3.5s
• Claws of Attack: Attacks needed to gain Empower 5 -> 4
• Protective Purse: Block 6 -> 7
• Darkest Lotus is now a Dark item

Fixes:

• Fixed a multiselect issue related to shifting items with the arrow keys

Other:

• Stacks generated by an item are now shown on the item during battle
• Dragonskin Boots are now Leather Boots with a new sprite
• Battle background got a visual upgrade
• Combat log now adjusts the background to the game time (after battle)
• Improved Steam deck support. If you have a Steam deck, try it and let us know how it feels!

[ 2024-03-03 08:49:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Hope you had a great week! Backpack Battles is getting closer to release and we're very excited. This week's new item is a recipe available for Ranger & Reaper: The Heart of Darkness! It interacts with Dark items and uses Regeneration.

Support Us!

Backpack Battles is going into Early Access on March 8th, 2024 - which is in 12 days! So don't forget to wishlist it! Come talk to us! Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr Also check out the new wiki, maintained by some awesome community members!

Patch notes for 0.8.3

• NEW RECIPE: Heart of Darkness

Balance:

• The Fool: Speed bonus 25% -> 35%
• Strong Pestilence Flask: Poison delay 6s -> 7s
• Protective Purse: Block 5 -> 6
• Ruby Chonk: Heat required to stun 15 -> 12
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cooldown 1.6s -> 1.5s
• Staff of Unhealing: Heal 10 -> 11
• Falcon Blade: Cooldown 2.1s -> 2.0s
• Claws of Attack: Minimum damage +1
• Mr. Struggles: Speed buff duration 6s -> 8s

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue making items in storage harder to grab when drawing a box

Other:

• Combat time in seconds is now displayed near the speed slider
• We have started to work on the Steam Deck compatibility. It should be somewhat playable currently, but still has a lot of issues we will address soon.

[ 2024-02-25 13:13:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone!

The Early Access release of Backpack Battles is coming closer. In fact, it's only 17 days away, on March 8th! Are you excited? We are for sure! The full price will be $12.99/12,99 and there will be a 10% launch discount for the first week of release, so you can get the game for $11.69/11.69! Come talk to us! Join our Discord server!

[ 2024-02-20 09:07:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Hope you had a great week! This patch adds a long-requested quality-of-life feature - box selection for bags! Just click and drag to draw a box and select multiple bags.
The new item of the week is The Fool, a Playing Card that you can get as a Reaper by purchasing the Deck of Cards!

Support Us!

Backpack Battles is going into Early Access on March 8th, 2024 - which is in 19 days! So don't forget to wishlist it! Come talk to us! Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr Also check out the new wiki, maintained by some awesome community members!

Patch notes for 0.8.2

• Multiple bags can now be selected, moved, and rotated by drawing a box!
• NEW ITEM: The Fool (part of the Playing Card pool)

Balance:

• Ruby (inventory): Now triggers once after a delay, life steal increased
• Sapphire (inventory): Now triggers once after a delay, adjusted Cold amount
• Emerald (inventory): Now triggers once after a delay and gives Regeneration directly
• Topaz (armor): Now also gives some crit resistance, but less stun resistance
• Topaz (inventory): Now gives base stamina regeneration instead
• Lucky Piggy: now has two * tiles, chance bonus 25% -> 15%
• First playing card in the chain no longer reveals after 1.0, uses the reveal time of the respective card instead (mostly for consistency)
• Dancing Dragon: Cooldown 2s -> 2.2s
• Hungry Blade: Cooldown 1.6s -> 1.7s
• Bloodthorne: Cooldown 1.6s -> 1.7s
• Stone: Accuracy 65% -> 70%
• Burning Torch: Ramp chance 30% -> 35%
• Mr. Struggles now reliably triggers before Health Potions bump your health back over the threshold
• Mr. Struggles: Speed boost duration 5s -> 6s
• Strong Demonic Flask now applies the healing debuff before doing the damage, so Health Potions are affected
• Darkest Lotus now has the Magic type
• Critwood Staff is now Legendary

Fixes:

• Fixed cards creating wrong connections when pushed aside by the Deck of Cards itself

Other:

• Items in storage box are now easier to grab
• Items now move to the storage box when dragged below the inventory around the character so it is easier to store your items
• Potion fluid effect now has different properties for different potion types

[ 2024-02-18 09:58:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Lunar New Year!

Last week, we added the Dancing Dragon in celebration of the Lunar New Year, and you seemed to like it very much. And of course, you can still find it in the shop! The same goes for the Wolpertinger, or I have heard players call it, the bunny! This patch slightly nerfs Wolpertinger's stamina bonus, but as a little redemption, we are giving it the "Nature" type. This week's new item is the Heart Container - a Valentine's Day-themed shop item available for both classes! It gives you Regeneration, but also uses it to fill up and grant you bonuses.
This week, we also published the first devlog video about Backpack Battles on our YouTube channel! We talk about why we started developing it a year ago, what challenges we faced, and how we managed to gather over 470,000 wishlists. [previewyoutube=JEEVJ4PeeS8;full][/previewyoutube] As always, the patch comes with tons of bugfixes and balancing adjustments. Check out the full patch notes below or in-game!

Support Us!

Backpack Battles is going into Early Access on March 8th, 2024 - which is in 26 days! So don't forget to wishlist it! Come talk to us! Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr Also check out the new wiki, maintained by some awesome community members!

Patch notes for 0.8.1

• NEW ITEM: Heart Container
• Fanfare is reworked (and moved to Godly)
• Unique chances are back to normal

Balance:

• Corrupted Armor: Added additional effect: * Holy items are Dark items (Dark type is only relevant for Corrupted Armor itself - for now)
• Mr. Struggles: Speed bonus duration 3s -> 5s
• Wolpertinger: Stamina gain 1% per stack -> 0.7% per stack
• Wolpertinger now additionally has the Nature type
• (Strong) Stone Skin Potion: Trigger threshold 20 Block -> 45 Block
• Djinn Lamp now has the Magic type
• Magic Staff: Damage +1
• Burning Torch: Damage +1

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where survival bonus was displayed despite being out of tries at the end of the survival mode
• Pandamonium now plays its attack animation
• Hungry Blade / Bloodthorne now use Regeneration instead of removing it (also adapted the wording)
• Combat log: Fixed damage meter selection box overlapping with the resize clickbox which lead to cursor changing
• Gemstones now benefit from Customer Card correctly
• Fixed occasional lag when leaving item library due to stacking particle effects
• Fixed a way to acquire the same Unique item twice

Other:

• Improved tooltip formatting (no longer starts new lines for only . , etc)
• Stamina bar now displays a decimal digit in combat - let us know how you like it!
• Dancing Dragon doesnt hide its price tag anymore
• Added hover particles for Shield of Valor

[ 2024-02-11 10:36:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are streaming Backpack Battles!

[ 2024-02-04 17:00:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are streaming Backpack Battles!

[ 2024-02-04 17:00:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Huge Backpack Battles patch is here! We have been asked a lot to add a German translation, and now it's here! We are German so we translated the game ourselves. The patch also brings two new items: The Wolpertinger, inspired by German folklore, is a Godly pet that can be bought in the shop. It gives you buffs and stamina regeneration depending on how many buffs you have. When you're lucky you can now also find the Dancing Dragon, a Unique item! It was designed by our Chinese players and is inspired by Dragon Dances that are performed to celebrate the Lunar New Year! The Dancing Dragon is a ranged weapon that gives you Luck and Heat.
There are some smaller additions as usual: The combat log now tracks all buffs & debuffs in a meter like the damage meter, just open the side panels of the combat log and choose in the drop-down menu. It counts gaining/inflicting, removing/cleansing and using of stacks separately.

Support Us!

Backpack Battles is going into Early Access on March 8th, 2024 - which is in 33 days! So don't forget to wishlist it! We are participating in Steam Next Fest starting tomorrow, February 5th - so please come watch the stream broadcasted on our store page. Come talk to us! Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr Also check out the new wiki, maintained by some awesome community members!

Patch notes for 0.8.0

• NEW UNIQUE ITEM: Dancing Dragon
• NEW ITEM: Wolpertinger
• Added German Localisation!
• Unique Chance is increased for the week (especially for Dancing Dragon)
• Combat log now tracks how many of each stack were added/removed/used

Balance:

• Flute no longer does the same effect multiple times in a row, Block 12 -> 14
• Mr. Struggles: Now increases attack speed for 3s when falling below 50% (no longer when Fatigue starts)
• Strong Demonic Flask: Additionally reduces healing by 30% for 3s
• Staff of Unhealing: Stamina Cost 1.0 -> 1.5s
• Darksaber: Cooldown 1.4s -> 1.5s
• Villain Sword: Cooldown 1.2s -> 1.3s
• Eggscalibur: Mana cost 13 -> 12
• Pandamonium: Damage +1
• Falcon Blade: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.1s
• Burning Torch: Damage increase chance 25% -> 30%
• Ruby Chonk: Damage +2
• Crossblades: Cooldown 1.6s -> 1.5s
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cost 13g -> 12g
• Impractically Large Greatsword: Cost 15g -> 14g

Other:

• Overhauled the cooldown visualization of items to be a bit more precise and look cooler
• Accuracy and crit chance are now displayed as >100 in combat when buffed above the limit and <0 when blinded below the limit
• (some) items now have custom shopkeeper reactions when they are bought

[ 2024-02-04 09:40:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone,

Backpack Battles will be part of the Steam Next Fest starting next Monday, February 5. The event will be going on for a week. We hope the game will find lots of new players! With the next patch, we are adding a German translation! And new content, of course. Also, you can catch our stream on the store page and the event page!

[ 2024-01-29 15:31:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Hope you had a great week! This update adds the Corrupted Armor, a craftable item! Of course, it generates Block at the start of battle. Then, it shoves debuffs from you to your opponent on cooldown. Also, when surrounded by Dark items, it gives the debuffs on your opponent a protection chance - so your opponent might fail to cleanse the debuffs.
The patch also includes some small quality-of-life changes, such as the combat log now tracking the Block items generated over the battle. There are balancing changes as always, check them out below or in the in-game patch notes. A quick reminder that Backpack Battles is going into Early Access on March 8th, 2024 - which is in 40 days! So don't forget to wishlist it!

Joining the community

Found a bug? Want to share fanart or BPB content? Or just like to talk to other players about the game? Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr Also check out the new wiki, maintained by some awesome community members!

Patch notes for 0.7.6

• NEW RECIPE: Corrupted Armor

Balance:

• Holy Armor: Cost 14g -> 13g
• Blood Harvester: Cost 12g -> 11g
• Pumpkin: Cost 11g -> 9g
• Tim: Cost 12g -> 11g
• Gingerbread Jerry: Cost 10g -> 8g
• Moon Shield: Block needed to generate Mana 10 -> 12
• Health Potion: Heal 12 -> 11
• Belladonnas Whisper: Threshold to generate Poison 8 -> 9
• Darksaber: Stamina cost 1.0 -> 1.2
• Manathirst: Lifesteal 12 -> 10, damage +1
• Platinum Customer Card: Unique chance 8% -> 10%
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cooldown -0.1s
• Crossblades: Damage +1
• Eggscalibur: Damage +1
• Pandamonium: Damage +1
• Ruby Chonk: Damage +2
• Burning Coal (Armor): Block 12 -> 15
• Burning Coal (Backpack): Cleanse 2 -> 3

Fixes:

• Fixed tooltips something not showing up in item library and recipe sheet
• Fixed Accuracy not updating when hovering entries in the combat log
• Block removal is now counted as damage dealt in damage meter
• Fixed multiple shields blocking not reducing the damage multiple times

Other:

• Damage meter now tracks Block gained
• Added a message that notifies the player when there are items in storage when starting a battle

[ 2024-01-28 10:07:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

This week, we announced that Backpack Battles is going into Early Access on March 8th, 2024! Which is in less than 50 days! And we received a ton of very nice messages from you! In case you missed it, check out the announcement post! The 0.7.5 update adds a new shield that you can craft, the Moon Shield. It interacts with Mana and Block-generating items and can shield from melee and ranged attacks.
We also improved the combat log: After battle, you can now hover over entries in the log and then hover items to see their stats at that moment. Also, the health your items healed is now tracked in the Heal meter (switch to it using the dropdown menu in the damage meter). There are balancing changes as always, check them out below or in the in-game patch notes.

Joining the community

Found a bug? Want to share fanart or BPB content? Or just like to talk to other players about the game? Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr Also check out the new wiki, maintained by some awesome community members!

Patch notes for 0.7.5

• NEW RECIPE: Moon Shield
• Damage Meter can now be switched to Heal!
• Combat log now tracks damage, accuracy, critrate etc throughout the whole battle history! (There are still things missing, more work on that will come in the future.)

Balance:

• Spectral Dagger is now crafted with Mana Potion
• Belladonnas Whisper: Damage needed per Poison 7 -> 8 (also slightly reworded)
• Staff of Unhealing: No longer gets +4 heal when Mana used
• Strong Poison Flask: Poison delay 5s -> 6s
• Platinum Customer Card: Unique Chance 6% -> 8%
• Ruby Chonk: Damage +2
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cooldown 1.8s -> 1.7s
• Poison Dagger: Damage +1
• Pandamonium: Damage +1
• Eggscalibur: Damage +1
• Tusk Piercer: Damage +1
• Crossblades: Damage +1

Fixes:

• Fixed Hungry Blade/Bloodthorne not logging the used Regeneration
• Darksaber now plays an attack animation
• Piggybank no longer logs +0 maximum health gained

Other:

• Cap of Discomfort now is a Dark item
• Dropdown lists now highlight the hovered entry

[ 2024-01-21 09:42:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone,

We have a big surprise for you all! [previewyoutube=qqhlUfR3B2Q;full][TRAILER][/previewyoutube] We have decided to go into Early Access in early March of this year! This means you will have access to all classes earlier than previously announced. We have been asked many times if we can launch earlier, and this way we can From the start of Early Access, BOTH the Berserker and the Pyromancer will be fully playable. Each of them comes with a full set of 5 subclasses and already a total of 25 to 30 class-specific items. The goal of the EA phase will be to polish and balance the new classes. We are aiming for a pretty short duration of a few months until the full release. And of course, well be adding more items and general quality-of-life features during EA - and who knows what else!

The Berserker

The Berserker is rough, tough, and angry. Her core mechanic is Battle Rage, which gives her increased attack speed and damage resistance when in danger. Many Berserker-specific items interact with Battle Rage and do something special when it activates! The Berserker starts with a Forging Hammer, which she can use to upgrade items.

The Pyromancer

Some people love to see the world burn. Literally. Pyromancers find arson awesome! The Pyromancer can both buy and generate 1-gold Flames, that generate Heat on their own. Flames can be used to set items on fire or infuse them with Heat. Some of her signature items can use Heat as a resource for massive effects, such as reincarnation! So, here are some questions we think you might have and our answers: Will you still update the demo in parallel? The demo will stay up, but it will no longer get content updates. Instead, the Early Access version will be updated. This way, the Early Access-exclusive content does not lead to unfairness for the demo players. Will demo players be matched against EA players? No, the player pools will be separated. Will my progress from the demo transfer? Ranking will probably reset towards Early Access and possibly during Early Access as well. We will, however, do our best to transfer all unlocks (trophies, skins, etc)

[ 2024-01-18 08:01:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

The weekly BPB patch is here! Last week, we made an experimental change: In the subclass round, a lost try is restored. We made a poll on our Discord server, and the result was very clear - you liked the change, so it stays! For this week, we are adding two new recipes. Rangers can now craft Belladonna's Whisper and Reapers can brew a Strong Demonic Flask!
Another thing we're very excited about is a new music track our friend FaRu made, you can now hear it in the shop when you're in Survival mode! It's the first BPB OST track and we love it very much Please check out FaRu's other work! As always we have some balancing adjustments & fixes, check them out in the changelog below or ingame!

Joining the community

Found a bug? Want to share fanart or BPB content? Or just like to talk to other players about the game? Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr Also check out the new wiki, maintained by some awesome community members!

Patch notes for 0.7.4

• NEW RECIPE: Belladonnas Whisper
• NEW RECIPE: Strong Demonic Flask
• Added a new track for survival made by Fabian Ruch for BPB!

Balance:

• Death Scythe: now gains 50% crit chance when opponent reaches 35 poison
• Bow and Arrow: Stamina usage 1 -> 1.5
• Fortunas Grace: Stamina usage 1 -> 1.5
• Tusk Piercer: Stamina usage 1 -> 1.5. Damage +1
• Mana Orb: Mana generation chance 66.6% -> 50% chance, Mana used 33 -> 30, buffs gained 15 -> 12, random buffs no longer can be Mana
• Piggybank: Reduced numbers of affected slots by 2
• Ruby Chonk: Damage +2
• Bloody Dagger: Heal +1
• Platinum Customer Card: Unique chance bonus +4% -> 6%
• Lump Coal (Armor): Block +1
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cooldown 1.5s -> 1.8s, scaling damage +2 -> +3
• Protective Purse: Block 4 -> 5
• Pandamonium: Damage +1
• Eggscalibur: Damage +1

Fixes:

• Fixed a crash related to Present
• Survival bonus no longer gets applied when falling to 0 tries on the last round
• Fixed a rare crash related to buying cards
• Fixed items being lockable through the combat end screen without hiding it

Other:

• Added lowpass filter to BGM when the game is in a menu
• Added particles to Death Scythe

[ 2024-01-14 13:25:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone,

Hope your first week in 2024 has been good! We have another experiment this week: You will now receive 1 extra try before round 8 (the subclass round). Play around with it, at the end of the week, there will be a poll on Discord to check back with you! With this week's update, we're also replacing the Book of Light with the Glowing Crown - and we've added a new recipe, the Holy Spear.
There are also quite a few item reworks and balancing adjustments, check them out in the changelog below or in-game!

Joining the community

Found a bug? Want to share fanart or BPB content? Or just like to talk to other players about the game? Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr Also check out the new wiki, maintained by some awesome community members!

Patch notes for 0.7.3

• NEW RECIPE: Holy Spear
• Book of Light is now the Glowing Crown with basically the same effect. The Book will come back later as another Item.

Balance:

• You now regain 1 try at round 8
• Reworked Ranger Bag: Now gives 10% crit + 3% per Luck
• Piggy Bank now additionally increased max HP for each adjacent Start of Battle effect item
• Whetstone, Hero Sword, Hero Long Sword, Falcon Blade, Crossblades, Gloves of Haste are now "Start of Battle" effects
• Reworked Mana Potion: now gives 15 max HP instead of Luck, triggers when using Mana OR falling below 50% HP
• Mana Orb: Added effect: Use 33 Mana to gain 15 random buffs
• Platinum Customer Card: Reflect 1 -> 2, Unique Chance: 3% -> 4%
• Book of Light: Is now Glowing Crown that has one socket. Heal 6 -> 5
• Darkest Lotus: Mana/Buff removal 2 -> 3, price 7g -> 8g
• Bloodthorne: Stamina cost 1.5 -> 1.8
• Ruby Chonk: Damage +2
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cooldown 1.6s -> 1.5s
• Impractically Large Greatsword: Empower threshold 6 -> 5
• Poison Dagger: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.0s
• Bloody Dagger: Cooldown 3.5s -> 3.0s. Vampirism generation +1, bonus heal 2 -> 3
• Broom: Stamina usage 1.5 -> 1.2

Fixes:

• Uniques can now drop in subclass round (after subclass was chosen)
• Fixed a crash where items could be picked up during crafting
• Fixed items that were pushed aside not starting recipes when they should
• Fixed a crash when opening recipe book from title screen with a non-available class selected

Other:

• The new community wiki is now linked on the title screen!

[ 2024-01-07 14:09:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

We wish you all a Happy New Year 2024! Stay safe & healthy and good luck with everything. This year, we're going to release Backpack Battles - and we have some exciting news soon! Wishlist & follow the game to stay updated So we are really excited for 2024, and hopefully, everything goes well! Our publisher IndieArk sent us this cute card!

[ 2024-01-01 10:08:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

It was a wild year. Without any exaggeration, a life-changing one for us. Some of you don't know this, but the core team is just us two: Doro and Mario. We live together, code together and design together. Before February, there was no Backpack Battles, not even the idea to make something like that. And out of nowhere, you appeared and played our game. We somehow went from an idea, that we were unsure about if it would even work - to what has been the most played demo on Steam for months.

You often ask us how much of this was planned,

so yeah... the whole game is a big experiment. This is not the type of game that can be planned too much, and we decided early to embrace the unknowable rather than try to control it. The best ideas only ever come up when the game is actively being played - without this approach, we would have never discovered some (now) core features such as recipes, or the ability to lift bags after they were first placed. We are also still on a streak, and managed to patch some new content into the game every Sunday since we released the demo on May 30, 2023!

So, where is this all gonna lead us?

Here is what we know: In parallel with the weekly content, we have been working on the new classes and subclasses behind the scenes. When we launch, we will do that with 2 more classes, the Pyromancer and the Berserker, and a total of 20 subclasses (5 per class). This has been a hefty chunk of content to prepare, but we are very happy with it and well on schedule! (surprisingly) We cant give an exact number of items yet, but it will be a substantial increase from the current state There is also some more great news regarding the launch on the horizon that we cant talk about just yet. Stay tuned for more announcements :) So, thanks everybody for playing our game! I hope you have fun, we promise we will do everything we can to make it the best game possible. And Happy New Year!

[ 2023-12-31 13:24:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! What a year! We started this game in February as a small little side project, and suddenly we somehow became the most-played demo on Steam for a while. Thanks everyone for sticking with us! :) To celebrate, we used our holiday, and did the responsible thing: We implemented a feature. One we have been asked for countless times: You can pickup bags with items inside now.
And we know that y'all like new items, so we added two recipes: The Magic Torch and the Platinum Customer Card!
Check out the full patch notes with balancing adjustments and many more small changes below. Enjoy the game and Happy New Year! (Also, if you want to look back on the year with us, there will be another Steam post after this one!) - Doro & Mario

Joining the community

Found a bug? Want to share fanart or BPB content? Or just like to talk to other players about the game? Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr

Patch notes for 0.7.2

• NEW RECIPE: Magic Torch
• NEW RECIPE: Platinum Customer Card
• Bags can now be picked up with items inside
• When dropping an item onto multiple items, these will now shift inside the bag when they find a new space instead of being thrown to the storage box
• Dropping a bag onto another bag will replace it and pick up the replaced bag with its contents - to get the old behavior (swapping without contents), press Ctrl. You can switch the default/modified behavior in the Options.
• Unique chances are back to normal!

Balance:

• Darkest Lotus: Removed Mana limit. Now always generates Mana and removes buffs.
• Darksaber is now crafted with Corrupted Crystal
• Potion Belt: Random buff is now gained when the first potion is consumed
• Present: Reduced value of generated items
• Gingerbread Jerry: Cooldown 4s -> 3s, Regeneration 2 -> 3
• Artifact Stone: Heat: Heat threshold 15 -> 10, bonus damage 10 -> 8
• Goobert: Heal 10 -> 9
• Torch/Burning Torch: damage increase now triggers on Hit instead on Attack (this is mostly for consistency)
• Vampiric Gloves: Vampirism 6 -> 5
• Cursed Dagger: Cooldown 2.3s -> 2.2s
• Mr. Struggles: Debuff reflect chance 25% -> 35%
• Demonic Flask: Damage per debuff 0.3 -> 0.35
• Impractically Large Greatsword: Empower threshold 7 -> 6
• Fancy Fencing Rapier: Cooldown 1.7s -> 1.6s
• Crossblades: Damage +1
• Blood Harvester: Damage +2

Fixes:

• Fixed Survive x more rounds text sometimes not showing the number
• Fixed max hp and gold being displayed wrong when continuing a run
• Present can no longer give a second Deck of Cards
• Item library: fixed incorrectly categorized items when filtering by stack

Other:

• Added a bit of squashing to the damage-taken animation
• Shop tooltip now shows chances for sales and Uniques
• Added particles when Magic Staff uses Mana
• Changed Item Library filter defaults: Now all items are shown without grouping
• Removed Compact layouting option to save some space (now always on)
• Added highlighting to character sheet

[ 2023-12-31 13:04:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Merry Christmas!

This week, Santa is bringing you a Christmas patch! It includes a new outfit for Ranger and two Unique items: The Present and Gingerbread Jerry! Of course, we have a lot of balance adjustments for you, too! The item library also has a new feature: you can now filter for buffs & debuffs. Check out the full changelog below.
We wish you a great Christmas, stay safe and have fun with the patch <3 - Doro & Mario

Joining the community

Found a bug? Want to share fanart or BPB content? Or just like to talk to other players about the game? Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr

Patch notes for 0.7.1

• NEW UNIQUE ITEM: Present
• NEW UNIQUE ITEM: Gingerbread Jerry
• NEW CHARACTER OUTFIT: Christmas Ranger
• For the next week, the odds of finding a Unique are increased, especially for the new ones!

Balance:

• All attack speed is now additive (this makes speed from multiple sources like Gloves + Heat escalate less, but is mostly for clarity)
• Reworked Topaz (Armor): Now gives Stun resistance instead
• Reworked Emerald (Armor): Now gives Poison resistance instead
• Potion Belt: Cleanse 3 -> 4
• Torch: Stamina cost 0.7 -> 1.0, Damage increase chance 30% -> 25%
• Burning Torch: Stamina cost 0.7 -> 1.0, Heat 3 -> 2, Damage increase chance 30% -> 25%
• Burning Coal (Weapon): Chance 15%, damage 5 -> Chance 12%, damage 6
• Burning Coal (Inventory): Activation delay 3s -> 5s
• Goobert: Heal 11 -> 10
• Ruby Chonk: Cooldown 1.6s -> 2s, Stun duration: 0.5s -> 0.4s
• Wooden Buckler: Stamina drain 0.4 -> 0.3
• Spiked Shield: Stamina drain 0.4 -> 0.3
• Shield of Valor: Stamina drain 1.0 -> 0.7, damage reduction 10 -> 12
• Cursed Dagger: Damage +2, cooldown 2.5s -> 2.3s
• Hammer: Max damage +2
• Darksaber: Base damage 5-9 -> 7-12
• Impractically Large Greatsword: Empower threshold 8 -> 7
• Manathirst: Damage +1

Fixes:

• Fixed particles popping in when opening item library
• Item library: Gems etc now have a consistent order
• Audio improvements

Other:

• Item library now supports querying by different buffs/debuffs
• Items in the Item library can now be grouped by price
• Added hover particles for Book of Light
• Wardrobe: the top buttons now equip all parts of the same costume

[ 2023-12-24 10:48:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone,

This week's update is HUGE! It comes with 4 new items, three of them are crafts: the Torch is an early-game weapon, the Burning Lump of Coal and Burning Torch can be obtained by igniting Lump of Coal/Torch with a Fire item. The fourth is the Artifact Stone: Heat, a unique stone!

Item Library

Many of you requested that we add an item library where you can look up all items in the game - and now it's here!
You can open it from the Title screen (next to the new recipe book button!) or from the Shop:
You can filter for specific classes, rarities and more. You can even search for types or item names.
We'll be adding more features to it over the coming weeks. Check out the full patch notes below and have fun! - Doro & Mario

Joining the community

Found a bug? Want to share fanart or BPB content? Or just like to talk to other players about the game? Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr

Patch notes for 0.7.0

• Added ITEM LIBRARY!
• NEW RECIPE: Burning Coal
• NEW RECIPE: Torch
• NEW RECIPE: Burning Torch
• NEW UNIQUE: Artifact Stone: Heat

Balance

• Reworked Potion Belt
• Poison Ivy: No longer applies +5 poison when reaching the threshold. Damage bonus 25% -> 20%
• Amethyst (Weapon): Now triggers On hit instead of On attack (this is for consistency)
• Stone Skin Potion: Cost 5g -> 6g
• Strong Stone Skin Potion: Spikes 3 -> 2, Duration 3s -> 4s
• Eggscalibur: Mana Cost 15 -> 13
• Ruby Chonk: Heat threshold 10 -> 15 (to compensate for the new Heat generation items in the game)
• Hammer: Damage +1
• Lump Of Coal (Armor): Block 6 -> 7

Fixes:

• Fixed Artifact Stone: Cold playing its throw animation twice
• Another attempt to fix the Linux crash

Other:

• Recipe book can now be opened from the title screen
• Improved cursor hotspot
• Deck of Cards now always activates start of battle

[ 2023-12-17 10:17:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone,

Version 0.6.4 of the Backpack Battles demo is here! It adds a crafted item, the Cap of Discomfort. I'm sure you'll figure out the recipe! We are also buffing many items, such as the Blood Amulet. It now gives maximum health, which is a completely new effect - so we'll see how it affects the game. Another one is the Deck of Cards: When you buy it, a Playing Card will be offered in its place. In this version, we also fix a lot of smaller issues like the Start Backpack Battle button being clicked through items stacked in the storage, and many things related to recipes. Please let us know any bugs you find related to these changes. We hope we can further increase the build variety with this version. Please remember that we do these balancing/content patches weekly and the game is far from finished. We also have some big announcements soon! Have fun! - Doro & Mario

Joining the community

Found a bug? Want to share fanart or BPB content? Or just like to talk to other players about the game? Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr

Patch notes for 0.6.4

• NEW RECIPE: Cap of Discomfort

Balance:

• Blood Amulet: Now additionally gives +20 max health start of battle
• After buying Deck of Cards, one card is offered instantly in its spot
• Poison Ivy: Inflicts 2 Poison per Spike now. Poison threshold: 13 -> 19. Poison when reaching threshold: 5
• Broom: Removed Mana requirement
• Box of Riches: Cost 6g -> 5g
• Tusk Piercer: Damage +2
• Ripsaw Blade: Cooldown 1.7s -> 1.8s
• Shovel: Cooldown 2.2s -> 2.4s, stamina cost 1.5 -> 1.7
• Pan: Cooldown 2.1s -> 2.2s
• Hammer: Damage +1
• Leather Armor: Now resists 3 debuffs
• Pineapple: Cost 8g -> 7g
• Lump of Coal (Armor): Block generation 5 -> 6

Fixes:

• Fixed crafting item labels appearing when they should not
• Fixed multiple items being reserved with the same click
• Fixed spawning way too many falling items when quickly switching to title screen and back
• Shaders are now precompiled to prevent stutters
• Start Battle button is now disabled when an item is in front

Other:

• Items now prefer to participate in started recipes over starting new ones
• Items now light up when they affect the hovered item (before they only did when dragging an item)
• Added round countdown to survival mode (shown after battle)
• Moved reroll rope out of the storage area

[ 2023-12-10 09:19:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone,

It's patch day! This version adds two new recipes: You can now brew Mana Potions and Strong Pestilence Flasks! We also made some balancing changes. This week, we try to find a place for Eggscalibur and simplify Pandamonium. We think balance-wise, Pandamonium was in a good place before, so we tried to leave its power level intact. Also, some of the new additions might allow for pretty wild things, we are ready to bonk them on the head if needed. Have fun!

Joining the community

Found a bug? Want to share fanart or BPB content? Or just like to talk to other players about the game? Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/sbEkqeUKNr

Patch notes for 0.6.3

• NEW RECIPE: Mana Potion
• NEW RECIPE: Strong Pestilence Flask

Balance:

• Reworked Eggscalibur: It can now use Mana to trigger * Food.
• Pandamonium: Removed speedup effect. Stamina cost 0.8 -> 0.7
• Staff of Unhealing: Cooldown 1.8s -> 2.0s, Mana cost 5 -> 6
• Tusk Piercer: Start of Battle Spikes 1 -> 2
• Poison Ivy: Now gives resistance against all debuffs
• Lump of Coal (Weapon): Trigger chance 60% -> 70%
• Lump of Coal (Armor): Block 4 -> 5
• Lightsaber: Blind 8 -> 7
• Blood Harvester: Maximum damage +2
• Pumpkin: Maximum damage +2

Fixes:

• Fixed Lump of Coal (Weapon) damage not being applied before invulnerability, crit etc.
• Fixed Lump of Coal (Inventory) not being affected by Death Scythe/Blood Harvester
• Some more adjustments to Lightsaber Blind timeout behavior

Other:

• Item combining can now be locked/unlocked in combat
• Added visual effect when items can fuse

[ 2023-12-03 11:42:21 CET ] [ Original post ]