Beacon patch 2.51 is out introducing a major update to the Controller Scheme, a new Notifier System, and Damage Numbers! Notifiers are one of the largest UI improvements added to the game to date, giving much more information on the environment including much needed hints at how to access Secret areas for newer players. Damage numbers help improve the readability of combat immensely as well, giving you more feedback on how well each weapon performs in different fights as well as giving much clearer feedback on when you land Critical Hits. 

Controller players will be glad to hear we have finally updated the default Controller Scheme, making the game feel much more natural on controllers than the previous free-aim setup. After weeks of testing and referencing other twin-stick shooter controller schemes, we’ve found a balance that will feel much more natural to controller users while still offering the ability to free-aim while holding the left trigger for more accurate crosshair movement necessary for some actions in Beacon. We’ll still be watching for feedback if there’s any final requests for tweaks to be made to the controller setup for the 3.0 release of the game. 

Patch 2.51 will be one of our final early access patches as the game nears its final form for the full release (Patch 3.0). The team has been hard at work on Level 6 and the final boss encounters for the game while finalizing this patch, and we’ll be able to begin testing the full 6 levels soon while we add a few final features to the game and prepare for release. 

Check out the full Patch 2.51 notes below! Beacon is also on sale for 25% off for the next week. 

Patch 2.51 Notes

Controller

• Updated aiming scheme to a more traditional Twin Stick aiming style.
• Left stick now controls motion and character direction when it's the only stick used.
• Right stick controls aiming and allows the player to strafe if used in combination with movement. Free aim by default has been removed, but is still able to be activated in Options. 
• Left Trigger activates Free Aim/Aim Lock. If not on a target, it allows you to aim anywhere on the screen for more precise Grenade, Pickup, or Auxiliary item use. If on an enemy, it will lock onto that enemy and hold your aim on them until they are killed or the trigger is released.
• Added Aim Lock reticule that appears on enemies near your aim and lock-on animation when an enemy is locked.
• Controller remapping option screen can now be navigated with the D-Pad
• Fixed Xbox Controller button displays on the HUD not updating to match rebound keys
• Fixed weapon switching when activating a Trigger Use on controller
• Fixed phantom navigation when navigating the Main Menu with the D-Pad on controller
• Fixed Dynamic crosshair not aligning directly left and right when using a controller

UI

• New Notifier System: Notifiers now appear on almost all interactable items in the game, expanding when moused over to display a name and short description. The new Notifiers should help players more easily recognize what is destructible, lootable, or interactable as well as give more explicit hints at how to unlock Secret areas. 
• White Notifiers: Usable - Indicates that the object is usable, used on objects like Flux Nodes and Beam Redirectors that the player can interact with
• Yellow Notifiers: Loot - Indicates that the object can be opened or broken for a chance at loot
• Green Notifiers: Travel/Healing - Indicates that the object is used for travel or boosting, and occasionally for healing objects like Swampspore Clusters and Nanomed Consoles
• Red Notifiers: Destructible/Trap - Indicates that the object is destructible or a trap, used on explosive traps as well as barriers that require a grenade to destroy
• Purple Notifiers: Secret - Indicates that the object is a secret or bonus loot area, giving a hint if a criteria needs to be met to unlock the secret
• Blue Notifiers: Story - Indicates that the object is a collectible Memento or Log, able to be read and added to your Index when collected.
• New Damage Numbers System: Damage numbers now appear over the health bar of all enemies, changing color for Critical Hits. Damage Numbers can be toggled off in the options.
• Added Cursor Color Picker and Transparency slider to Options
• Updated Crosshair textures to be more readable and noticeable when re-colored
• Added Map Reveal to the start of each level, revealing all map waypoints at once and displaying a message to remind the player to check the map

Items

• Passive Pickup: Scorched Choker and Golden Scorched Choker - Converted from Passive, grants the player health regeneration when out of combat but limits health to 50
• Passive Pickup: Ammo Synthesizer - Converted from Passive, grants the player a 75% chance to regenerate ammo when an enemy is killed
• Passive Pickup: Bio-Extractor - Converted from Passive, heals the player for 3 health each time an enemy is killed
• Passive Pickup: Mesmer - Converted from Passive, freezes the enemy over your crosshair

Music

• Added new Level 3 Combat Music

Balance

• Player minimum Health and Stamina increased from 25 to 50.
• Player acceleration values tweaked to make movement more responsive 
• Lowered increasing stress drop percents for Volatile and Fortified DNA when in large fights to prevent Level 4 and 5 fights dropping too much DNA.
• Pickup: Nanomed Patch - Changed to a healing Pickup. Heals 50 each use, with 3 charges. 
• Pickup: Wild Feast - Replaced health regen passive with 3 charge heal that fully restores health and stamina
• Pickup: Tesla Injector - Updated Stamina Regeneration script to prevent floating dodge mutations from being infinitely usable. Stamina no longer stays full constantly, but will drain and after a 1 second delay will regenerate at 2x speed. 
• Pickup: Flydrop Core - Reduced Stamina Regen delay from -4 seconds to -2.5
• Increased accuracy on a handful of One Handed and Rifle weapons
• Adjusted damage spreads of many weapon projectiles to make damage dealt a bit more random and also balance weapon damage output based on recent testing.
• Removed unique Critical Hit damage multiplier on a few weapons. Now all weapons have a base 2x critical hit damage multiplier.
• Weapon: Laser Engine - Increased Damage per Second from 6 to 16, reduced ammo drain rate, reduced magazine size to 60, increased reload time
• Weapon: Flamethrower - Increased Flame range and speed, reduced ammo regeneration delay, decreased fire rate and magazine size by 20
• Weapon: Tesla SFG - Increased damage of Tesla SFG Ball explosion greatly, reduced damage dealt when colliding with ball before explosion
• Weapon: Pyro SMG - Increased range of pyro smg projectiles
• Weapon: Refactored Refractor (Laser Refractor variant) - Increased magazine size by 8
• Weapon: Double Tap (LMG Variant) - Reduced fire rate
• Mutation: Feral Heels - Increased jump speed, reduced distance of leap. This should make the mutation more useful in combat and prevent it from accidentally flinging the player off of the level as often.
• Mutation: Gaseous Sack - Increased Stamina drain per second while floating
• Mutation: Leeching Tentacle - Reduced lifesteal to 10% on melee
• Mutation: Draining Maw - Reduced lifesteal to 10% on crit
• Trap: Mining Laser - Reduced damage per second to 10 from 120. The laser will still be a large threat and will burn away health quickly, but won't instantly kill if jumped into with full health.
• Enemy: Solus Warden - Decreased health of Armor Shells, and increased base enemy health. Hatchlings will be released earlier from the Warden now, and the health bar will appear once the Armor Shells are broken for the majority of its overall health.

Misc

• Updated Tips displayed on the loading screen with 50+ new tips.
• Optimized level 5 map collision to prevent navmesh from generating larger than necessary and reducing performance
• Optimized Grenade Warning floating icon
• Added static batching to many static level assets, giving a minor performance boost over dynamic batching that they previously used
• Added Splash triggers to water, lava, and acid in all levels that trigger the Drop Drone and play a splash particle when the player lands in them

Fixes

• Fixed Mining Spider boss Satellite Strike lasers disappearing when they travel over the elevator platform
• Fixed Tritoraptor Matriarch leaping into the elevator shaft if the player was on top of the elevator platform
• Attempted fix for Hivemind wieners getting stuck and never unburrowing
• Fixed Luck tooltips displaying outdated description
• Fixed a handful of pickup items being usable infinite times
• Fixed 3D Printers not ignoring armor when removing health on use
• Fixed 3D Printer and DNA Printer having a few old Passive items that were converted to Pickups spawning
• Fixed cavern teleporters on a few levels transporting the player underneath the floor when at low FPS
• Fixed Level 5 Playtest End memento not appearing when the bottom of the elevator is reached
• Fixed Level 5 Core holo barrier around the Beacon Locator being able to reflect and duplicate projectiles infinitely, sometimes causing a huge performance drain
• Fixed a handful of errors in the Tutorial after recent updates
• Miscellaneous level fixes and tweaks