[P&C Compatible] Balance Mod

More items are worth using and fewer choices are overpowered. Range and Luck stats are better. Mixed-weapon builds are easier to manage and more build styles are viable; Tier-4 weapons are cheaper. Several tweaks to make things feel better to use and encourage more varied gameplay. Tooltips are more accurate and detailed. Overall difficulty is similar, with the easiest runs made modestly harder and the hardest runs made a bit easier.

The full list of all changes is here: https://github.com/DarkTwinge/Brotato-BalanceMod/#full-changelog – Below is a summary of major changes you should know about.

Note: Altered/New descriptions will currently not display for non-English languages. (If anyone wants to help me make a translation set for another language, let me know! ~90 text keys, but most are simply tweaks of vanilla text which already has translations to reference.)

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• Easier to have mixed-weapon builds: The chances of being offered one of the exact weapons you already have is higher the more weapon types you have. Additionally, shop weapon set favoring is now based on how many of that set you have (so a single off-set weapon doesn’t impact your weapon pool as much).
• Armor is slightly less effective (~7% worse). Fewer items give negative Dodge.
• Range gained/lost from level-ups & items is ~15% higher.
• Other level-ups: Tier 2-4 Luck is stronger; Tier-1 Harvesting dropped to 4; weaker Tier-4 level-ups are more worthwhile.
• Horde Waves give ~8% fewer materials.
• Enemies can now drop partial material amounts instead of all or nothing (average amount is the same).
• Several tooltips cleaned up to be more accurate, hidden mechanics are detailed, & character descriptions take up less room. Guaranteed level-ups are color-coded. Cyborg’s transition has unique SFX. Tooltips show explosion sizes.

• Primitive set bonus is worse; Blunt set bonus is better. Gun set bonus changed to Attack Speed in order to make the Range stat more relevant.
• Hand partially reworked to make Tier-3/4 worth buying.
• Screwdriver partially reworked+buffed so it cares more about Crit.
• Sharp Tooth reworked to only have one Set and to be stronger overall.
• Minigun, Hammer, and Sledge now have Knockback Piercing, meaning their Knockback is more effective against resistant enemies like Chargers.
• Sickle removed from the game.
• Most Tier-4 weapons are cheaper (slightly buffs Luck & mixed weapon builds). Other weapon prices slightly tweaked for more logical/consistent progression.
• Spear & Thief Dagger are nerfed; Mace is heavily buffed.
• Ghost Flint, Hatchet, Laser Gun, Obliterator, Plank, Plasma Sledge, Potato Thrower, Scissors, Sword, Wand, Cacti Club, Hammer, and War Hammer receive minor buffs.
• SMG, Fist, Icicle, Spiky Shield, Lightning Shiv, Flaming Brass Knuckles, Chain-gun, Nuclear Launcher, and Revolver receive minor nerfs.
• Chopper, Harpoon Gun, and Sniper Gun get minor buffs+nerfs.

Tons of items receive small buffs or nerfs: overall more items are useful in more situations, and the strongest give less power for their cost. Note that the goal is not to make everything equally strong; there is still plenty of variance and build-specific decision-making. Some highlights:

• Tardigrade is no longer wasted by self-damage.
• Candle is cheaper & reduces enemy damage. White Flag is cheaper & reduces max enemies.
• Fresh Meat removed.
• Chameleon reworked: now gives Luck.
• Tyler buffed and moved to tier-2; Bot-o-mine nerfed and moved to Tier-3. Catling Gun & Bonk Dog nerfed.
• Utility Crit items work better as speculative picks: Pile of Books is Blue Tier & Eyepatch comes with more Crit.
• Early economy items (Fertilizer, Coupon, Bag, Dangerous Bunny, Recycling Machine) are a little worse (but still strong).
• Purple delayed-value items (Wheat, Blood Donation, Bowler Hat, Vigilante Ring, Starfish) are better (as you have much less time to profit from them).
• Power Generator now reduces your HP as it powers up.
  [*Fairy gives less HP Regen and gives negative HP for Tier-4s instead of negative HP Regen.
• Ghost Outfit significantly buffed. Wandering Bot and Lucky Coin significantly cheaper. Hedgehog, Duct Tape, Sausage, and Bone Dice cheaper. Saltwater more impactful.
• Ricochet is now friendlier with already-piercing weapons.
• Heavy Bullets now stronger overall but lowers Accuracy.

As with items, the goal is not for characters to be equal strength. The focus is instead on making the easiest options less ‘free’, as well as tweaks to make decisions more interesting and characters more variable.

• (DLC) Druid reworked to care more about poisoned fruit.
• (DLC) Creature reworked to have stronger curses rather than weapon scaling.
• Mage can better run an Engineering build (turrets + Sausage) and also handles Gun builds better (extra Sausage). Engineer can better combo with Elemental Damage.
• Lucky and Speedy now care more about raising their thematic stats. Soldier cares more about Pickup Range.
• Crazy now works with Crossbows properly; Brawler works with Claw properly.
• One-armed and Baby receive moderate buffs. Hiker, Fisher, and Farmer get minor buffs.
• Masochist, Knight, Doctor, Loud, Renegade, Bull, Cryptid, Explorer, Demon, King, Mutant, Gladiator, Engineer, Entrepreneur, and Brawler receive nerfs.
• Most automatic starting weapons (e.g. Wildling, Crazy) are removed, making your chosen starter more meaningful.

• Late-game Elites have 15% more health.
• (DLC) Pufferfish now spawn 4 projectiles when killed by melee (instead of 0).
• (DLC) Stargazers are now stronger when you kill their Incubators first.
• (DLC) Spider Crab Elite summons harder to deal with. Turtle Elite attacks sooner and is tankier.
• (DLC) Guaranteed Seapigs now spawn on the Crash Zone map, letting you opt into Curse.
• Hivemind/Colossus Elite slightly nerfed.
• Mantis Elite tweaked to be more unique and slightly harder. Butcher Elite attacks are harder to run from.
• Crash Zone: Wave 14 slightly easier. Wave 16 harder. Wave 12 slightly harder. Wave 20 has additional small enemies, making it slightly harder and helping enemy/material synergies. Wave 14/15 Horde Waves scarier.
• Knockback a bit more effective against resistant enemies.

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Tune into my stream where I play a wide variety of indie games: https://www.twitch.tv/darktwinge

If you’d like to directly support my ability to make and maintain mods like this, you can do so on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/DarkTwinge or directly: https://paypal.me/DarkTwinge

You might also enjoy my FTL Balance Mod: https://www.darktwinge.com/ftl-balance/index.php

Bait & Wave Reminder: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3029249900
Piggy Bank Reminder: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3005196583
Revamped Icons: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3003721761
Advanced Statistics: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3025488976

WL, Inschato, ArosRising, Hyphen-ated, Pasha, Lady Lynn, and everyone else that’s assisted with feedback, suggestions, or coding!
Also thanks to Blobfish for being receptive to feedback, implementing many previous Balance Mod changes directly into the base game.

You are free to use Balance Mod concepts & code with attribution — just link back to the Balance Mod and/or to my Twitch stream.