We promised you big news and excitement in this week’s Battleplan and we’re ready to deliver! In case you missed it, this past Tuesday we took to Twitch for our Beatrix Reveal Stream. New media manager Elisa Meléndez was joined by character designer Kevin Powell, creative director Randy Varnell and associate producer Anthony Nicholson for a stream stuffed with information. You can see the archived stream on our Twitch channel to get all the details on Beatrix, her kit, and her skills. We grilled the guys on her development history, lore, and even threw in a little gameplay. Early access for Season Pass owners will begin on January 19th at which point they’ll be able to instantly unlock Beatrix with a Hero Key and start playing! Beatrix will officially release on January 26th to everyone and be unlockable for 47,500 in-game credits.
That wasn’t all we talked about. In addition to all the Beatrix madness, we finally announced the release date for the much-anticipated Winter Update: January 19th! That’s right, the time is at hand. On January 19th, you’ll finally be able to enjoy all the big changes we’ve been touting for the past several weeks. It’s been a long wait for all of us and we’ll be looking forward to hearing your feedback as you get to know the new look and new features coming to Battleborn!
We’re only halfway through this busy week, so that means it’s time for everyone to catch their breath and suit up for todays’s Oscar Mike vs The Battle School Reveal Stream! Head over to our Twitch channel at 3pm PT (6pm ET) for our second stream of the week featuring our next Story Op which also arrives on January 19th! Join Elisa as she sits down with Battleborn writer Sam Winkler, creative director Randy Varnell, and special guest voice actor Jim Foronda (Oscar Mike, Minrec, and Whiskey Foxtrot) to lay out exactly what you can expect when you take on The Battle School!
We have several changes for you this week and they focus on two Battleborn in particular – Galilea and Benedict. These changes will begin rolling out today at 12pm PT (3pm ET).
Galilea
Our vision for Galilea is for her to be an exceptional Territorial Defender, capable of planting in a location with Desecrate and then aggressively holding that territory from invaders. While she’s not bad at that now, her variety of talents allows her success in other roles that are really outside of her intended gameplay scope. For this patch, we’ve come up with a few changes that we think will help tune Galilea in line with our intention for her. She will still be a force to be reckoned with in her Desecrate field, but will now deal less damage outside of her Desecrated ground. We have some other plans for changes to Galilea to help focus her a bit more, so look forward to those plans in a future patch update.
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Reduced the damage of Galilea’s Shield Throw by 31% (from 142 to 97 at level 1)
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Reduced the damage of Galilea’s Greatsword primary attack by 22% (from 66 to 55 at level 1)
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Decreased the growth rate of Corruption passive by 40%
*Note: Due to the way this change was made, Galilea will appear to become fully corrupt sooner than she actually has. The Corruption meter on her HUD will remain accurate, but the associated effects will now become active prior to her reaching maximum Corruption.
Benedict
Benedict’s ego has gotten a bit oversized with some of his recent updates, putting him quite solidly at the top of our damage dealers. While we intend to keep him strong in the way of rocket-hawking, we need to bring this bird-brain’s damage back down to earth. We’ll be pulling back on some of his recent buffs to bring him in line with other attackers in our roster.
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Reduced base health from 983 to 831 at level 1
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Reduced the damage of Benedict’s UPR-SM23 Rocket Launcher primary attack by 10% (from 211 to 190 at level 1)
Fan mail is one of our favorite things, and sometimes, we receive gifts that are truly special. Such was the case this past week, when we received a beautifully decorated envelope from Beya in Finland! Beya was kind enough to send us quite the care package, including some amazing artwork, a touching hand-written letter, and even a cake recipe (which we haven’t gotten to try… YET). You can see Beya’s artwork below. Thanks again, Beya!
You guys will probably love this week’s lore. Oscar Mike? Mmmmmm not so much.
[Archived transcription of audio recorded in Nova’s med-bay, dated 19959.41]
GHALT: Huh. That was…surprisingly painless. And you’re saying this injection is going to help my knees?
BEATRIX: Almost assuredly. Or what’s LEFT of those pitifully collagenic patellae you generously call “knees”. As your primary-and-only-competent-care physician, I really must recommend we work something mechanical in there. Maybe…tritanium? All you UPR grunts love tritanium!
GHALT: Yeah, on the OUTSIDE. Replacing my skeleton? SO not gonna happen.
BEATRIX: Your loss. Captain, would you kindly bring the next patient in?
OSCAR MIKE: Sup, Cap—hey, where’s the doctor?
BEATRIX: You’re looking at her. Have a seat, Mr…Mike. I’m going to need you to remove your combat armor and helmet.
OSCAR MIKE: My…what? No way! I’m just here for the free band-aids.
BEATRIX: Is he always like this?
GHALT: Pretty much.
BEATRIX: Oscar, I’m going to ask one more time: pretty please, with sugar on top…
OSCAR MIKE: Look, if I wasn’t in MEGA-PEAK CONDITION, could I do THIS? Bam! Totally healthy, no armor removal necessary!
BEATRIX: I was hoping it would come to this.
OSCAR MIKE: To what?
BEATRIX: We don’t have an infracarbon-saw aboard this ship…yet. But I pride myself on innovation in the face of adversity, and I’ve made some…mostly positive findings thus far with this bladed boomerang I borrowed, and an electric toothbrush I’ve recoupled to the med-bay’s primary generator. This should be interesting. Nova, begin recording.
NOVA: Hm? Oh, I record pretty much everything, everywhere, all the time.
BEATRIX: Now THAT’S creepy. Remind me to check your archives later. Captain, restrain the patient.
OSCAR MIKE: Uhhhh…CAPTAIN, PERMISSION TO NOT BE RESTRAINED. Ha! Take THAT, spooky doctor girl!
GHALT: Permission denied.
OSCAR MIKE: You can do that?
GHALT: Yup. Unless you want to lose that chest plate and helmet, soldier.
OSCAR MIKE: But…it’s cold! Awww, man!
GHALT: And the base layer.
BEATRIX: He’s blue?
GHALT: Well, sure. What, you’ve never seen a Galahadrim’s skin before?
BEATRIX: They lose their pigment on expiry.
GHALT: What does—oh. Yeah, he’s blue.
OSCAR MIKE: Do you need me to open my mouth and say “ahhh”?
BEATRIX: No. In fact, do the opposite. Keep it closed, say nothing.
[negligible background noise for 10 seconds]
BEATRIX: Incredible…and you’re certain this is one of the RDC’s quick-culture clones?
GHALT: Yeah, I’ve got it on pretty good authority.
OSCAR MIKE: Don’t tell the others!
GHALT: Riiiight. Anyway, why do you ask?
BEATRIX: He’s actually remarkably healthy compared to most Galahadrim I’ve examined. I mean, all my specimens were also dead and suffering from a variety of injuries, but even so, almost all of them had evidence of pre-existing conditions stemming from ribosomal degradation. It’s exceedingly rare for the quick-culture process to “take” without a host of issues arising…at least, not without specific care to the specimens throughout the maturation phase.
OSCAR MIKE: See? What’d I tell ya! I’m pretty much the greatest.
BEATRIX: Captain, why did the UPR select Galahadrim for the program? As opposed to, say, Aplians? Their musculature is significantly further developed. Or the Aviants? Superior mobility, collectivistic instincts, quicker gestation, shorter juvenile period…
GHALT: Well, originally, it was going to be an Aplian-based program, but changed to Galahadrim just a few months before the program began for a couple of reasons…
OSCAR MIKE: Further developed MY ASS! Captain! Permission to wrestle!
GHALT: Denied.
OSCAR MIKE: Damn!
BEATRIX: Yes, but why, Trevor, WHY did it change? If there’s some Galahadrim-specific physiological component of the cloning process, I need to know, both for my own research and to adequately care for Mr. Mike and Mr. Foxtrot.
GHALT: No, no, it’s nothing like that, it’s. Well. Have you ever seen Montana eat?
BEATRIX: Oh. Oh my. The caloric intake necessary to feed an army of mountains must be—
GHALT: “Expensive as all hell,” was the official line. The Galahadrim—
BEATRIX: I’ve seen their digestive tracts before, opened stomachs with corroded rocks and raw meat mixed with standard UPR rations. They’re efficient. I see. And the other reason?
GHALT: Hm?
BEATRIX: You said “a couple of reasons”, what’s the other reason for Galahadrim clones?
GHALT: Oh. Uh. Well, at the time, the UPR was going through an aggressive recruitment campaign, you know, lots of “visit exotic places and blow them up!” kinda posters…
BEATRIX: I don’t follow.
GHALT: Well, the UPR’s Ministry of Media decided that some blue would…[sigh]…”pop” more. And we didn’t have a big enough population of Helicians, something about “staple variance factors”, I think?
BEATRIX: Stable variance factorization. You need a particular threshold of genetic diversity to carry out a mass-cloning operation such that any unforeseen mutations don’t propagate enough generational momentum to impact the population as a whole.
GHALT: Uh huh.
BEATRIX: So…he’s blue.
GHALT: Yup.
OSCAR MIKE: And BADASS! And healthy as heck!
BEATRIX: Right. Well, I have some archived footage to review. Oscar, I believe we’ve BOTH earned ourselves a piece of candy.
GHALT: Candy?
[Drawers opening and closing, metal clattering]
BEATRIX: Captain, WHERE is the candy?
GHALT: Uhhh…
BEATRIX: HOW can I be expected to perform my medical duties if I CAN’T PROPERLY INCENTIVIZE MY PATIENTS? Or my SELF? Or my assistant!
GHALT: Assistant?
BEATRIX: I’m filing a requisition order. Nova! We need candy for the med-bay!
As is the norm with character releases, Chaos Rumble will be returning next week. It will run from 8am PT (11am ET) on Thursday, January 19th until 8am PT (11am ET) on Monday, January 23rd. For the uninitiated, Chaos Rumble is a special game mode in which character uniqueness is turned off. This means that you can play any character you want, even if a teammate has already chosen them. It also means that in many ways, balance isn’t what it normally is, so just jump in, have fun, and enjoy the chaos! Oh, and did we mention that while you’re slugging it out in Chaos Rumble you’ll be earning double credits too? Well, you will be! We want to help you get the 47,500 credits you’ll need to unlock Beatrix as soon as possible, so start getting ready for next week now!
