Eremite Games and Hooded Horse have released the Against the Storm Rainpunk update, finally giving you the chance to harness the devastating power of the rain for your own ends. The update also revamps the Blightrot mechanic and brings in a whole bunch of smaller changes and fixes.
According to Eremite, it was always the plan to evoke both the "dangerous and beneficial qualities" of Against the Storm's rain, and while the former comes across in the game, there was "something missing" when it came to the latter. That's what the Rainpunk technology being added in the update is intended to bring; it lets you install Rain Engines in buildings to improve efficiency. There's also a new Infused Rainwater resource that powers Rainpunk machinery.
The Blightrot mechanic is also getting an overhaul, which is directly tied into Rainpunk. Rather than being generated passively each production cycle, Blightrot is now tied to Rain Engines. Boosting production with these engines results in a higher Blightrot footprint, which will spawn parasitic cysts more quickly. Blightrot is also more dangerous as of this update; it'll spread to neighboring buildings instead of capping at 3 cysts per building.
The goal behind this change was, according to Eremite, to increase player agency. Players had pointed out that the original Blightrot system was basically "a tax on fuel and workforce". With that in mind, Eremite wanted to introduce more strategy and let players decide whether Blightrot was something they wanted to risk in exchange for increased production efficiency.
There are also plenty of other changes in Against the Storm's Rainpunk update, including bug fixes, improved UI design for the Training Expeditions panel, and a level cap increase, among other things. Make sure to take a look at the full changelog to get up to date with everything that's changed in the update. Shortly after Rainpunk's release, a hotfix arrived to correct some bugs the devs missed the first time around, so make sure to give that a look as well.
You can grab Against the Storm right now on Steam, where it's currently in its Early Access phase. It'll cost you $19.99 or your local equivalent. If you've just started the game and are wondering how to combat the constantly-falling rain, be sure to check out our Against the Storm guides!
