We're excited to bring you a major new content update today, Update #112, the launch of the Head Hunters system. If one of your squad members earns the hatred of a powerful contact, that contact may hire Head Hunters to bring you down. Head Hunters create high-pressure situations that are forced to resolve over a short period of time, one way or the other. Once a Head Hunter has been given a bounty on your head, you're in a pressure cooker - it is you, or them, or dodging them enough times that the Contact relinquishes the bounty. From the moment the bounty is set until the moment is ends, you have to be on your A-game to stay one step ahead of them and always ready for hard fight for your life.
Head Hunters are unique enemy squads that have a % chance to appear mid-mission and try to terminate your squad. They're independent from other enemies on the map and will quite happily cut through them to get to you, potentially throwing your heist into chaos and setting off security escalations that add to your difficulties. You might be able to make use of the distraction to quickly wrap up your objectives and get out, but Head Hunters are relentless in their pursuit of you and will only try again on some future heist. There are two ways to stop a Head Hunter - kill their leader or avoid them enough times that the Contact cancels the bounty. If you chose to fight, their second-in-command and other henchmen will still fight on for the rest of the mission, but you'll end the threat of them ambushing you on future jobs, and burn the contact that hired them with additional Exposure as well. If you choose to flee, you may be able to escape them a few times and end the bounty without being forced into a high-stakes battle.

The first of hunters to come

We're starting out with three possible teams that can be sent against you, with more to come. Head Hunter teams have a unique leader, a second-in-command, and several goons. Head Hunters each have their own unique flair, with a combat style to match. You can end up with multiple Head Hunters hired to go after you, though you'll never see more than one team within a single mission.

Macha Gold

Two highly trained sniper teammates cover Macha Gold and his second, Ostrek, while they advance to close-range so they can corner and kill their bounties personally. Relying on Cybersword techniques, Aegis Shield and a powerful cocktail of combat drugs mixed up for their team by Ostrek, these Head Hunters close quickly, mixing long and short range death. Arrogant, in love with his name, and sure that he is the top of the heap, Macha Gold loves to talk trash.

Razorback & Armistice

The roar of shotguns follow Razorback and Armistice wherever they lead. The two were corporate soldiers in the Pacific Rim during the Quiet Wars and have continued their career in the private head-taking sector. Backed by Gego and Sledge, this 4-member team is extremely fast moving and all carry assault shotguns, ready to lay waste to their enemies' armor and health. Ex-corporate, these two are buttoned up, serious and grim. They aren't having any fun but they're making bank.

Baby Jack

Leading a company of ex-special ops milsec soldiers who are out to make a living, Baby Jack doesn't take anything too seriously except the tactics. His squad is a balanced mix of weapons, armor and abilities that forms a cohesive unit, capable of fighting in a wide range of configurations and ranges. Baby Jack likes to have a laugh and brag about his kills. We're looking forward to seeing Discord and Steam discussions on your strategies for handling each of these teams.

When hunted, stay speedy.

Be warned, if you have Head Hunters after you, it's more important than ever to move quickly in missions. Heists that require completing objectives before unlocking exits can become unescapable if you get too tied down fighting to ever accomplish those objectives. We're working on adding cut-and-run options into the game to choose to abandon a heist early, but in the meantime, play smart. If Head Hunters intercept your mission, you won't know until they spawn in 4-6 turns into it. Don't be afraid to use the Restart Level option to try again if the fight doesn't work in your favor, or Restore Before Mission (which will reset the chance of Head Hunters appearing on that mission) if you find yourself trapped in a game-ending scenario.

Use Counter-Intel

Some times you're on a really high-stakes heist and you simply can't afford disasterous interruption. To stay one step ahead of Head Hunters, you work on building a Counter-Intel Pod in your Safehouse which will give you options for temporarily throwing them off your trail. High Heat increases the chance that a Head Hunter will strike, so use your Tokens to mitigate Heat. And, you can also spend Tokens to gain yourself short windows of time when Head Hunters are completely blocked by your blast of misinformation and counter-intel chatter. So, if you're going on a mission with a Head Hunter looming, be sure to have your team up to full strength for the challenge or rely on your Counter-Intel pod to buy you some time.

Cyberdecks and Intrinsic Blueprint Details

We've added extra sections to the inventory screens for cyberdecks and Weapon Mod Intrinsic Blueprints. Cyberdecks now list all their installed programs and Intrinsic Blueprints list exactly to which weapon types they can be attached.

We're featured in TactiCon this week, and on sale to celebrate!

We're very pleased to be a featured game in this week's TactiCon festival, celebrating strategy and tactics games of all kinds. They have a schedule of talks and panels worth checking out.
And in case you missed it, you can find one of our own interviews talking about Cyber Knights, our studio, tabletop RPGs and more with game reviewer ACG here: [previewyoutube=lbk_V6OfckA;full]https://www.youtube.com/live/lbk_V6OfckA[/previewyoutube] If you're up for it, click through and give the video a or leave a comment; it helps us out!

v1.8.19 - 7/18/2024

- Added new infamous Head Hunters system! - If you cross the wrong Power Player in New Boston, Head Hunters may be sent after you - Once a bounty has been set, an infamous Head Hunter may interrupt your missions and try to take your head - Head Hunters will fight their way through local security if they have to reach you - chaos, gunfire, loud! - Kill the Head Hunters or escape them 3+ times in order to cancel the bounty and weak the Contact who sent them - 3 infamous Head Hunters added today with more clamoring for a chance: Macha Gold, Baby Jack, Razorback - All previous Head Hunters assigned by Octane, Henninger or others will now swing in to action - Cyberdecks now list their programs installed in their inventory detail and hover - Blueprints for Intrinsic Weapon Mods list the types to which they can be applied - Improved and fixed typos in event logs

[ 2024-07-18 17:21:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Explore the dystopian cyberpunk future of 2231 as you command a company of shadow mercenaries working for the highest bidder. Cyber Knights wraps a world full of consequential story choices and significant character development around a rich core of classic and new mechanics. The game combines tactical elements like stealth, hacking and tense combat with strategic features like base building, contact management and in-depth squad customization. Cyber Knights invites you to jack in and explore a unique cyberpunk world and the immersive, human stories of your merc team in the dark future of 2231.

• Turn-based Tactics: Deep and tactical gameplay using a turn-based, gridless third-person combat simulator. Cover! Overwatch! Recoil!
  
• Dynamic Cyberpunk Story: Unique interwoven narrative with depth, meaningful player choices and hundreds of hours of gameplay
  
• Sophisticated Missions: Combine stealth, hacking and combat across multi-stage missions. Gain pre-mission advantages from Contacts
  
• Endless of Builds: Experiment with endless combos of Jobs, cyberware, weapons and gadgets to build the perfect team
  
• Evolving Characters: Your team evolves as the story, your choices and battle leave lasting wounds, add Traits and threaten to strip their humanity
  
• Safehouse Base Building: Construct a custom safehouse and upgrade rooms such as weapon shop, hund kennel and medical bay.

Cyber Knights strikes a unique tone with a futuristic setting that has passed through the messy near-future to arrive at dystopian 2231. Man-made environmental disasters have ravaged our biosphere. Artificial consciousness has been created, subsequently murdered, and then strictly outlawed at a global level. Megacorporate colonies and research stations dot the solar system from Venus to Jupiter. Quantum computing has radically altered the digital landscape and the very meaning of privacy and digital security.

The game's threaded stories originate from both inside and outside your team -- weaving together threads from your hired mercenaries, criminal connections and history that just won’t die. These stories operate on three interconnected and at times overlapping levels -- personal stories (your team), contact stories (your employers) and event stories (city-wide).

And every choice you make and mission you run will impact your character's permanent Traits, changing them in both subtle and big ways. Their stories and your choices combine to create a unique narrative for every game, every Knight and every team.


The second game our studio created, Cyber Knights RPG, took hundreds of thousands of gamers on an gritty cyberpunk roller-coaster, trying to get rich or go down shooting. The classic Cyber Knights has always had a huge following within our community and we are xcited to come back to the world and stories we started creating there so many years ago with an all new game, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint.

We’re weaving together the genre’s classic themes with the unique setting and history of Cyber Knights to create some of the most cutting, gripping and human stories we’ve ever told. Betrayal, sacrifice, trading away humanity for an advantage, living fast and dying young, revenge and testing the bonds of friendship and trust -- it's all here under the New Boston dome.