OPEN FLASKS & CREATE BUILDS!

Finally! Something to do. This is GSA's biggest version yet. It completely reworks the progression system, turning 36 skill unlocks into over 1000 skill rarities! We get these rarities by combinging ACID with a new resource called FLASKS. These skill rarities can then be used to equip your favorite skills and create cool skill builds.
This is an important version as it FINALLY gives GSA's biggest fans something to work towards. The old progression system was very simple. You would unlock 36 skills and then you're done. That only took about 30 hours, and then.. nothing. All the ACID you earned from doing challenges and playing matches couldn't be spent on anything, as there was nothing left to unlock. Some players have stockpiled millions of ACID over the years. Well now we finally have a system to work towards again, and this one will last a LOT longer. It's more fun when each match gives you real meaningful progress, so lets see how it works!

[MAJOR FEATURES]

Here is a summary of the new features, roughly in the order that we use them:
1) New Progression Track: As we earn XP we can move up this track and claim flasks. We can also get ACID, Magnets and other resources. Click your account level up the top left to view this. As you go up the track new types of flasks will become available. These special flasks are more advanced and require strategic thinking to use well. There are fun milestones to work towards, such as a Legendary Flask at level 100, which is guaranteed to give you a Legendary skill.
2) New Currencies: Most important are Flasks and Magnets. These 2 new currencies are combined with our existing currency of ACID to generate DNA. DNA is what lets us equip our skills to our builds. As you earn more DNA on a skill it will increase in rarity, allowing you to see it more frequently in your skill build. There are also 2 other currencies called Uranium and Shards, but they don't do anything yet. A shop will be added in a future version. But I've included these currencies now so players can start stockpiling them ahead of time.
3) Flask Inventory: There are different types of flasks. Starter flasks, Legendary flasks, etc. They go into your inventory on the Unlocks page. Here you can see I'm about to open a "Heavy Booster Flask", which costs 500 ACID. This gives a bunch of DNA specifically for the Heavy class. 4) Opening Flasks: Select a flask and spend ACID to open it. This shows a groovy animation and gives you random DNA on skills and classes. 5) Spending Magnets: When opening flasks you can also spend Magnets to guarantee DNA for a specific skill. This is very useful. Normally, Flasks give random DNA (like you would get random cards in other deck building games like Magic or Hearthstone). But Magnets let you control EXACTLY what gets DNA, so you can play with your favorite skills.
6) Class/Skill DNA: Each class has its own skill tree, with DNA on its skills. As you earn DNA your skills become Rare, Epic, then Legendary. These are indicated with blue, purple and yellow skill icons. In this image we can see that the Assault class has got 3 skills up to Legendary status.
7) Skill Builds: Each class has a build of 12 skill slots. There are 2 Legendary slots, 4 Epics slots, and 6 Rare slots. To equip a skill to a slot you first need enough DNA. For example, you need 500 DNA to equip a skill to the Rare slot. 1500 is required for Epic, and 4500 for Legendary. Here is a closeup of the Sniper class after a few hours of play. Some rarities have already been unlocked, with "Illicit Income" already equipped in a Legendary slot! Now, how do builds work? We don't see ALL 12 skills each game. That would be very repetitive. Instead, the game will show you 1 Legendary, 1 Epic and 1 Rare. This means that the skills you equip are more likely to appear, but not guaranteed. As there are only 2 Legendary slots, Illicit Income is going to appear in 50% of matches, and the other Legendary in the other 50%. In this case the other Legendary slot is empty, which means that it will be populated with a random skill. As there are 6 Rare slots however, you only see them 17% of the time. So Legendary is naturally better than Rare. If you really like a skill, you should Magnet it often so it accumulates DNA fast and reaches Legendary status. This will allow you to see if far more often than other skills.

[3 NEW CLASSES]

CRIMINAL class unlocks at level 50: - Gang Warfare: Civs and cops join your gang, following you and shooting enemies. Your max gang size is 3. - Undercover: You'l disguise yourself as a cop when at full health. Your health bar and any status effects on you are hidden to enemies. - Five Star Man: The time between cop waves is reduced by 50%. Killing cops restores +30 health. SCIENTIST class unlocks at level 60: - Ballistic Bombs: Vendors sometimes sell weapons with 3 clips worth of explosive bullets. These bullets explode on impact, dealing +20% damage. - Alchemic Network: For each enemy within 30m of your placed chemicals, you gain +1 hp/s. Also, all enemy deaths within range give you +$500 and +0.5 clips worth of Ballistic Bombs. - Potent Chemicals: Chemical passive and active effects are +50% stronger. Also, when you buy anything from vendors, restore +0.5 chemical charges. ASSASSIN class unlocks at level 70: - Dagger Dance: Every 8 seconds there is a 2 second window where your bullets seek towards enemies and deal +20% damage. (Hint, this 2 second window is synced with the music). - Kill Contracts: After completing a civilian mission, your next kill gives you +1 random vendor upgrade as long as you don't die. - Mastery: Kills during your 2s Dagger Dance window increase the power of your upgrades by +5% (max +100%). Dying halves this bonus.

[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]

- Allies can now pick up the same heart without denying each other. - Hearts expire after 10 seconds. An indicator now shows how long until loot expires. - Passive regen is now briefly paused when shifting. - Cops now have 60hp instead of 30hp, and super cops now have 100hp. - You only lose 1 wanted star when you die, not all of them. - Cops now pursue you even during overtime, so be careful! - At vendors you can pay $500 to remove 1 wanted star at a time. - Rerolling the skill draft now costs $1000 instead of $2000, but can only be done once per level. - Rerolling the draft when your build is shown now costs $3000 instead of $5000. You cannot reroll legendary drafts. - When your build is shown, a new indicator appears above the reroll button showing your other build options. One of these is randomly selected when you click reroll. - The legendary skill now appears at level 4 instead of 5. You'll usually see a rare or epic at levels 5 and 7 (but sometimes 1 and 2 are possible). - Rare, epic and legendary skills in the draft are now determined by your skill build instead of being chosen at random. If you haven't got a skill equipped to that slot, it shows a random skill. - Guns do 10% more damage, with a slight variance in damage deal. EG: USP damage is now 10 to 12, instead of fixed at 10. - Chemicals now only take 0.35s to activate instead of 1.0s.

[GENERAL CHANGES]

- There is a new progression track that lets us claim Flasks, ACID and other things. New types of flasks will appear when you reach higher levels. Scroll up to see what's coming (it starts repeating itself at level 300+). - Our account level is now based on our level in the new progression track. Your old XP isn't lost though! It'll accelerate your progress until you catch up to your old level. - Added a new currency called Uranium. Note, this doesn't do anything yet. There will be a shop where you can buy ACID and Magnets in a later version. - The Deluxe DLC now gives +1500 Uranium. All existing DLC owners have had this added to their accounts. - Daily challenges now give 400 ACID and 4000 xp instead of 200 ACID and 5000 xp. - Weekly challenges give more ACID, and the final one gives +50 Uranium. - Monthly leaderboards give 2x as much ACID. Higher ranks will also give Uranium (300 for Genetic God, 150 for Immortal, 50 for Bio Weapon). - Monthly leaderboards now show the skill build each person used in their latest match. You can toggle this off to view upcoming rewards instead. - Removed the all time XP leaderboard. This is now replaced with a monthly XP leaderboard. There's also a monthly ACID earned leaderboard. - Rearranged a few skills in the skill tree. This only matters because certain flasks unlock ring 3 or ring 4 skills. - Players now earn +3 magnets for every 3 recruits that they get. You also get +1000 ACID per recruit. - Players earn +10% bonus end of match XP for playing in a Steam party. - Skill badges are now based on how many classes have that skill at Legendary status. They don't affect gameplay, just to show off.

[CLASS CHANGES]

- Assault's move speed is now +12% instead of +10%. Reload time is now +60% instead of +70%. - Sniper's bullets must travel 70m instead of 60m to reach their full +20% damage (a slight nerf). - Heavy's Crisis Cover only reduces 2hp instead of 3hp of damage. Final Focus only gives +2% rate of fire instead of +3% per level. - Caster's skills have +100% cooldown speed instead of +70% cooldown speed. They heal 15% instead of 20% of your max hp when cast. - Caster gets +1 reroll instead of cheaper rerolls. Most classes can only reroll once, but caster can do it twice. - Caster no longer has the Potent Upgrades perk, instead it gets a new perk called Skill Synergy: - Caster: After each skill draft that shows your build, gain a random vendor upgrade. This upgrade matches the skill selected if possible.

[SKILL CHANGES]

- Shockwave now reveals enemies for 3 seconds. - Shift Supply has 1 less shift per level, but the added shift distance is now 60% larger. - Boots of Travel move speed is 80% what it used to be. - Rambulance's extra vehicle speed is halved, as it was too hard to drive. - Spike Trap's vulnerability duration is now 5s instead of 3s. Cooldown is a bit slower. - Firestorm clusters it's fireballs tighter together, making it more bursty. - Arcane Power is now renamed to Charged Shot, and has a new icon (in the Weaponry tree). - Proximity Rounds (and Arcane Power) have better graphics/sounds when fired. - Venom Shot now does impact damage for each dart, ranging from 4 to 16hp. - Venom Shot poison rate is 50% as strong as before (the point above makes it buffed overall). - Poison Trail's duration is 75% as long as it used to be. - Skill Shots gives 1 extra charge per kill, for all levels. - Smoke Bomb only heals you when you're at full invisibility. - Armed Robbery has a 33% higher chance of dropping upgrades when you kill vendors. - Manic Mechanic does 33% more bonus damage vs vehicles. - Combo Killer's bonus combo time is 50% as long as before. However, it now also makes victims drop loot when you kill them. There is a 30 to 120% chance to drop loot PER multikill level (so if you get a 10x combo that becomes 300% to 1200%. That's a lot of loot!)

[BUG FIXES & OTHER THINGS]

- Fixed a bug where Deluxe people would occasionally not see their cosmetics. - Updated Chinese and German translations. Thanks guys <3