Patch 2.81 includes a handful of fixes and tweaks following feedback from the latest content patch, as well as dozens of particle effect improvements! 

The big focus of this update was improving the effects of many attacks and items, making them more readable and overall fancier to make them more satisfying to use. Explosion blasts should be much more visible now, enemy and player dashes will leave visible trails behind them, and many bullet types have been improved to be more readable in combat. 

While testing improvements to the effects many enemies and items also received balance tweaks. The most noticeable are a few new enemy updates such as the Nematode and Effigy, giving them secondary attacks to make them more dangerous in combat rather than just floating in the background. 

Patch 2.9 will be the next update in a few weeks, including more particle and balance improvements, combat and arena improvements, many new mutations, and a few other new features! 

Patch 2.81

Misc 

• Added new Melee Swipe particles to applicable Prism and Solus enemies
• Added Sonic MK-X Droid to Prism faction enemy list, allowing it to spawn in levels 3-6 in places other than the boss fight
• Added new boost pads to Level 5 Excavation and Hydro landmarks allowing the middle of the level to be traversed more easily
• Prism Shipping Trap and Loot containers - Set to occlude the top of the container when opened or burst, not only after the player enters
• Set Level 3 music to fade out as you cross the boss platform light bridges

Balance 

• Player: Added particles for basic dodge, footsteps, and landing
• Plasma Projectiles - Updated plasma bullet and plasma impact effects for all applicable Ship Weapons
• Magrail Projectiles - Improved magrail explosion effects on all magrail projectiles. Adjusted magrail explosion radius and damage settings, giving them an overall buff
• Tesla Pulse and SFG Projectiles - Increased visibility of Tesla Pulse and Tesla SFG projectile and explosion particles used by many player weapons and Tesla Droids 
• Sonic Projectiles - Updated Sonic projectile particles and explosions to be more readable and updated all Sonic Enemies and Weapons to use the same standard sonic particles
• Quill Projectiles - Updated Quill projectile and impact particles to be more readable and updated all Quill Enemies and Weapons to use the same quill particles
• Rotneedle Projectiles - Improved rotspore needle projectile explosion effects.
• Flare Projectiles - Improved trail and explosion effects. Adjusted flare damage values to give all 3 flare types the chance to deal higher damage.
• Mini Rocket Projectiles - Updated trail and explosion effects for all mini rocket weapons and items. 
• Weapon: Tesla SMG and Livewire - Updated trail effects to match recent other tesla beam updates. Tesla SMG now bounces 2 times, and Livewire 8 times.
• Weapon: Rotspore Blaster and Siamese Twins (Variant) - Increased max magazine size, increased radius of needle explosions, and increased shots per burst on Variant.
• Grenades - Improved explosion particles for all grenade types. Individual grenade balance changes listed below if they had any.
• Grenade: Fragment - Improved explosion effects, increased detonation time slightly to prevent not being able to reach farther enemies
• Grenade: Incendiary - Increased base explosion damage, increased radius of flame pool
• Grenade: Tesla -Reduced radius of explosion slightly
• Grenade: Pyro - Reduced radius of explosion slightly
• Grenade: Quill - Increased amount of quills per explosion
• Grenade: Sludge - Improved particles, increased radius of sludge explosion and sludge pool.
• Grenade: Nematode - Increased max damage, reduced radius slightly, increased detonation time and randomization. Updated model and effects to match new Nematode Cyst ability.
• Grenade: Hailshard - Increased amount of clusters released on explosion and fixed clusters getting stuck together often.
• Solus Quill Subfaction Armor - Changed Wardling, Ward, and Warden armor values so they are resistant to Physical damage instead of Explosive. Explosives will be more effective at killing them while burrowed now.
• Enemy: Nematode - Added new Nematode Cyst ability, releasing 1-2 nematode cyst explosives every time the Nematode is damaged.
• Enemy: Effigy - Added Crystal Cluster ability, causing the effigy to release explosive freezing crystals very few seconds.
• Enemy: Solus Warden - Fixed quill projectiles not always releasing correctly during the rapid fire quill wave scuttle, adjusted quill damage and speed
• Mining Blast Projectiles - Improved mining laser blast explosion effects for player weapons and Prism enemies.
• Enemy: Solus Wardling - Changed quill projectiles to be lobbed, decreased cooldown so it attacks more often
• Enemy: Tesla Droid MK1 - Updated Tesla Dash particles to match new player Tesla Dash updates, improved Tesla Smash particles and adjusted dash settings
• Enemy: Pyro MK2 - Updated Pyro Dash particles. Improved pyro grenade ability so it will less often light itself on fire. 
• Enemy: Pyro Droid MK3 - Improved dash and death explosion effects. Increased cooldown on Pyro Pod Calldown attack to prevent arenas with multiple MK3 droids getting filled with pods.
• Enemy: Flauros Evoker and Flauros - Updated flauros ability explosion effects.
• Mutation: Tesla Dash - Improved Tesla Dash particles with a more pronounced trail behind the dash and other readability improvements
• Mutation: Pyro Dash - Improved Pyro Dash particles with a more pronounced trail
• Auxiliary: Crystal Matrix - Improved particles, reduced Effigy Debuff shatter value to 40% of health 
• Auxiliary: Flame Pod - Improved flame pod explosion effects and added explosion notifier rings for enemy and player versions.
• Pickup: Telemite Serum - Improved particles, added sound to teleport
• Tesla, Pyro, and Steam Wall Traps - Added floor hologram notifiers similar to the mainframe to telegraph wall trap firing
• Trap: Rotspore Mounds - Updated rotspore mound burst and cloud effects.
• Travel: Nightshroud Bouncers - Updated nightshroud bouncer effects.

Fixes

• Fixed Gravity Boots and floating mutations causing the player to fall before they land on the Level 6 start elevator, breaking the level
• Fixed global shipping container smash sound that would often appear on Levels 4 and 5
• Fixed the Crystal Prism crate causing items to get stuck if they landed on the rotating platform, and increased size of collider that will trigger the energy damage.
• Fixed incorrect wall color on Level 4 Ending variants
• Fixed Level 5 Hydro Landmark lower platform angled pipes not moving correctly with the floating platform in the middle
• Fixed Level 6 lower Onyx Memento platform not spinning
• Fixed Level 6 lower Onyx Memento sometimes spawning incorrect memento
• Fixed a few Bestiary model previews being incorrect or mispositioned