Experimental changes on 2026.06.25 Feedback

[Nomander]

Develop and FAF Beta have been updated with the following changes for testing, and we have also provided some questions to guide your thoughts in gameplay:

Please provide replays with your feedback if possible.

Czar Buff
Cost slightly reduced and AA missile firing angle limits removed.

Does its cost better match its anti-ground performance without being overwhelming in air-to-air utility/performance?

GC Claw Nerf
DPS and range heavily reduced but units can now be shot while they are in the claws.

1. Is GC still too powerful against T3 units by itself?
2. Is it too powerful accompanied by DPS from the surrounding army?
3. Do shots targeted at units in the claws miss too often when the GC is moving?

Beetle rebalance
Cloaking removed and speed reduced in exchange for HP and regen.

1. Can both sides interact with the beetle in a fair and enjoyable way, especially in T2 stage?
2. Is it too weak, too powerful, or too difficult to use?
3. How powerful is it when dropped?

Sniper rebalance
Range significantly reduced (below T2 PD range) in exchange for movement speed and a large cost reduction.
Ability to prioritize ACUs is removed.
Seraphim snipe mode speed increased and damage model adjusted for shorter reload alongside the main changes above.

1. Can non-sniper armies interact with snipers in a fair and enjoyable way?
2. Are the lower cost cost snipers counterable if they are rushed?
3. Do the snipers provide their user a fair reward for their resource and APM cost?
4. Are mixed armies more viable than pure sniper balls?
5. Are Percy/Brick counters for Sera/Aeon more accessible to lower rated players?

SACU Rebalance
Quantum gateway cost, buildtime, and adjacency buffed.
Base SACU cost reduced.
Energy and buildtime costs significatly reduced for most presets.
Costs further reduced for the engineer presets.
Energy upkeeps reduced.
SACU RAS upgrade increases death nuke damage.
UEF Bubble shield prerequisite of the personal shield is removed, and the shield is rebalanced with mobile shields in mind.
Added RAS for Seraphim SACU and removed increased base production + cost.
Overcharge upgrade cost massively reduced.
Shield moved to tele/OC arm (tele nerf and Rambo preset rework).
Rambo preset changed to Nano + Shield + Sensors/Gun Range (non-energy-based lategame single-target damage rambo).

1. Do SACUs come out and counter T3 or ACUs too early?
2. Is UEF bubble shield viable with its new stats considering the utility of the SACU underneath?
3. Is overcharge cost too low, especially after the first SACU dies and you can reuse the energy infrastructure?
4. Are any SACU presets snowballing too strongly into the lategame, overpowering even their T4 counter?
5. Are UEF Rambos a viable high-cost direct-fire option for UEF, who have no direct-fire T4?
6. Is the buildpower of combat SACU too high?
7. Are there any overwhelming/unreasonable faction differences with SACU gameplay?
8. Do engineer presets find use cases as a dense buildpower option?

The full patch notes can be found online or in the game lobby's patch notes button.