Patch Notes: Neon Burrow Version 1.0

Neon Burrow version 1.0 is live and free to play in your browser. This post documents everything included in the launch build, along with the balance values for each district and system, so that players have a single reference for how the game works at release. Future patch notes will list changes relative to this version.

Overview

Neon Burrow is an original arcade maze escape game. You play as Pip, a small cyan maintenance robot exploring five underground districts. In each district you collect energy seeds to arm the Pulse Core, activate it to open an extraction portal and escape before the countdown reaches zero.

Districts

Version 1.0 ships with five hand-built districts, each a symmetric 21 by 21 maze with its own colour palette, soundtrack and mechanics.

• Power Junction: three Seekers, a gold key and locked gate guarding the Pulse Core chamber. Extraction timer 35 seconds.
• Flooded Archives: two Seekers and two Blockers, a water gap crossed by moving platforms and a current row that pushes Pip. Extraction timer 40 seconds.
• Thermal Foundry: two Seekers and a three-drone Swarm pack, heat vents, conveyor belts and timed laser barriers. Extraction timer 38 seconds.
• Crystal Network: two Seekers, one Blocker and three Mimics, shifting crystal walls and teleport pads. Extraction timer 38 seconds.
• The Core Vault: two Seekers, one Blocker, a drone pack, two Mimics and two Wardens that wake at extraction, with almost every hazard in the game and a secret room. Extraction timer 32 seconds.

Districts unlock in order. Enemy speed scales gently across them, from baseline in Power Junction to 1.12 times in the Core Vault.

Abilities

• Phase Shift: pass through walls and ignore hazards for 2 seconds, moving at 1.3 times speed. Cooldown 8 seconds.
• Magnet Burst: pull in seeds within 4.5 tiles over 1.2 seconds. Cooldown 10 seconds.
• Time Spark: enemies and hazards run at half speed for 3 seconds. Wardens are only fully slowed for the first second. Cooldown 12 seconds.
• Decoy Bot: all enemies target a hologram for 4 seconds. Cooldown 15 seconds.
• Overcharge: 1.6 times speed for 2 seconds, breaks cracked walls and destroys Blockers, Swarm Drones and Mimics on contact. Cooldown 6 seconds.

Enemies

• Seeker: follows a point about nine steps back on Pip's trail, chasing directly within four tiles.
• Blocker: patrols the longest straight corridor from its spawn point.
• Swarm Drone: hunts in packs of three, with direct, intercepting and closing roles.
• Mimic: disguised as a seed, reveals itself within 2.6 tiles.
• Warden: a fast elite hunter that appears only after the Core Vault's core is activated.

All enemies use breadth-first pathfinding and trigger an audible and visual alert when Pip comes within five tiles. Destroyed enemies respawn after eight seconds.

Player

• Base movement speed of 5.2 tiles per second.
• Two hit points at the start, upgradable to five.
• Two seconds of invulnerability after taking damage.
• Turn buffering on every input method.

Scoring

• Energy seed: 10 points, plus 2 for every 5 seeds of combo (combo window 1.1 seconds, maximum combo 30).
• Scrap pickup: 25 points. Data pickup: 50 points. Gold key: 100 points.
• Cracked wall: 50 points. Overcharge kill: 200 points. Secret room: 500 points.
• Pulse Core activation: 500 points.
• Win bonus: 20 points per remaining second plus 250 points per remaining hit point.

Upgrades

Six permanent upgrade tracks purchased with scrap and data:

• Speed Boost (3 tiers): +10 percent movement speed per tier.
• Shield (3 tiers): +1 maximum hit point per tier.
• Ability Duration (3 tiers): +25 percent ability duration per tier.
• Energy Capacity (2 tiers): seed requirement lowered to 50 percent, then 40 percent.
• Cooldown Reduction (3 tiers): 15 percent shorter cooldowns per tier.
• Dash Distance (2 tiers): Phase Shift speed multiplier raised to 1.6, then 1.9.

Scrap and data collected during a run are kept even if the run fails. Clearing a district pays a bonus of 10 scrap plus 5 per district number beyond the first, and collecting every seed adds 2 data.

Leaderboards

• A local leaderboard stores your top 20 scores in your browser.
• A global leaderboard shows the top 20 scores from all players. Submitted scores are validated on the server before being accepted.

Controls

• Keyboard: WASD or arrow keys to move, 1 to 4 for abilities, Space for Overcharge, P or Escape to pause.
• Gamepad: D-pad or left stick to move, A, B, X and Y for abilities, RB or RT for Overcharge, Start to pause.
• Touch: on-screen D-pad or swipe to move, dedicated ability buttons and a pause button.

Settings

• Music and sound effects toggles.
• Reduced Motion, enabled automatically if your system requests it.
• Screen shake toggle.
• Colour-assist labels for enemies and hazards.
• Touch controls: Auto, On or Off.

Audio

All music and sound effects are synthesised live with the Web Audio API. Each district has its own root note and tempo, and the soundtrack intensifies during extraction.

Saving

Progress, upgrades, settings and local scores are saved automatically in your browser's local storage. There is no account to create. Clearing your browser's site data will reset your progress.

Known limitations

• Controls cannot yet be remapped.
• Progress does not sync between devices, because saves are stored locally in each browser.
• Volume is controlled with on and off toggles rather than sliders.

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who played early builds and sent feedback. Your notes shaped the extraction timers, the Mimic reveal time and the decision to let failed runs keep their rewards. If you find a bug or have a suggestion, please use our contact page. We read every message.