If there’s one word that sums up the Week 72 update for ICARUS, it would be explosive. That’s right, the game’s latest patch introduces the new Explosive Bullet, which deals projectile and AOE damage that can dispatch enemies quickly and easily.
Things Go Boom
Explosive bullets are just a variant of the normal ammo that explodes upon contact. They do slightly less projectile damage, but they pretty much make up for this shortcoming with their potent explosive damage. Players can create explosive bullets for pistols, rifles, and shotguns.
Due to how effective they are at eliminating enemies, players can only craft explosive bullets at level 30 on the machining bench. Crafting them requires a new resource called Volatile Substance, which is made of two gunpowder, two Oxite, and two spoiled plants.
You make volatile substance using the mortar and pestle or chemistry bench. Unlike other crafting materials in ICARUS, volatile substance is only usable within 10 minutes before it loses its potency.
Now, for those creating explosive bullets, you must have some volatile substance and pistol/rifle/shotgun rounds. Here are the recipes in a nutshell:
- Explosive Rifle Round: One rifle round + one volatile substance
- Explosive Shotgun Shell: One buckshot shell + one volatile substance
- Explosive Pistol Round: One pistol round + one volatile substance
Economical Bullet Crafting
The developers revamped the bullet recipe in this patch as well. Basically, a single iron ingot can now make five ammo casings. Each ammo casing can be used with gunpowder to make one bullet.
While players can create one pistol round using an ammo casing and one gunpowder, the developers upped the requirements for making rifle rounds to two gunpowder to offset the cost reduction in ingots.
The materials needed to make Shotgun Buckshots have also changed. Now, players will need an ammo casing, five copper nails, six gunpowder, and one epoxy for a single shotgun buckshot.
Changelog
- Explosive damage now triggers a radial damage event in code incorporating player stats / talents / equipment for explosive damage stat increases rather than relying on BP flat value damage payloads
- Added new stat for explosive damage radius which controls the spread of the explosion
- Adding Grenade as a projectile type so its explosive damage can be scaled based on player talents after the shift from explosive damage to code rather than the payload BP
- Adjusting damage function library to take into account the new functionality of the explosive damage type
- Adding explosive damage stats to the different explosive damage types so they can be clearly seen in popups and used for damage calculation
- Certain creatures now take more damage from explosve damage: Caveworms, scorpions and crocodiles. Additionally the scorpion, landshark and sandworm bosses take increased damage. The scorpion boss takes further increased damage in it's hardened armor state
So, what can you say about the new explosive stuff in ICARUS Week 72 update?
