Balance Changes

Balance changes are mostly only in Vanilla and Lay D Denton, and do not apply for the other mods since they bring their own balance changes.

¹ The change applies to all modes including Zero Rando.

² The change does not apply to Zero Rando, but does apply to Zero Rando Plus, Rando Lite, and Rando Medium, along with all other modes.

If you don't want any of these changes then check out our Vanilla Fixer aka "Zero Changes mode".

General

• Damage to the player's torso has been reduced from 2x down to 1.3x to reduce one-hit deaths and save scumming. ²
• Damage to the player's head has been reduced from 2x down to 1.6x for the same reasons. ²
• Tweaked damage calculations for the player. This fixes issues with rounding for small damage values, especially when using ballistic armor or a hazmat suit. ¹
• Combat difficulty has an affect on all damage types, even environmental damage. This is what allows Serious Sam mode to be possible. ¹
• The large and medium metal crates are destructible, with 500 hp. ²
• Gibbed enemies drop all of their items. ¹
• Water fountains and water coolers are buffed so you can heal way faster. ¹
• Explosive barrels do more damage. This helps for Stick With the Prod modes, and for blowing up the weld points in the superfreighter. ¹
• Security Computers can no longer be used from a large distance. They must stay within highlight range (9 feet). ¹
• We allow saving during infolinks! ¹
• Lasers now have more consistent behavior: ¹
  • Lasers are now triggered by anything except NPCs/enemies, preventing the cheese of using a grenade or other object to block the lasers and safely walk past. ¹
  • Red lasers act as an alarm when triggered. ¹
  • Blue lasers will only trigger something else. ¹
    • Some blue lasers that open doors have been fixed to not retrigger and close the doors. ¹
  • Laser emitters take damage from sabot rounds and explosives even when under the minimum damage threshold, to match behavior of other breakable objects. ¹
• Chairs have had their colission height lowered so you could stand on them or use them for stacking, like in real life. ¹
• Animals can be knocked unconscious. ¹
• Autoturret firing rate has been made consistent, with the small ones firing at half the rate of full sized turrets. ¹

Items

• Wearable items (hazmat suits, ballistic armor, thermoptic camo, rebreathers, and tech googles) ¹
  • Their inventory space is immediately freed when used. ¹
  • The hum sound is quieter. ¹
  • Fixed timer rounding issues. ¹
• Tech Goggles are greatly buffed and can see through walls. Their strength is the same as Vision Enhancement augmentation level 2, which is 20 feet. They also last longer. ¹
• Nanokeys and datacubes emit a blue glow so they aren't as annoyingly hidden. (Only when they are shuffled.)
• Medkits and Medbots now do somewhat balanced healing, so your arms and legs aren't ignored. ¹
• Alcohol now gives 1 health to any dead legs before healing anything else, and gives a small amount of energy. ²
• Wine now gives 3 health and 1 energy. (Does not give energy in Zero Rando mode)
• Forty now gives 2 health and 1 energy. (Does not give energy in Zero Rando mode)
• Liquor now gives 2 health and 2 energy. (Does not give energy in Zero Rando mode)
• Flares are a bit brighter and no longer get extinguished when falling into water ¹

Enemies

• Helmets:
  • Enemies have a random chance to have a helmet or not. ²
  • Without a helmet an enemy will take 4x damage to the head, just like in vanilla. ¹
  • With a helmet an enemy will only take 2x head damage. Sabot rounds ignore the helmet and deal the full 4x. ¹
• Civilians and Thugs have better accuracy, but still not as good as Military characters. ¹
• Greasels have reduced health from 100hp down to 80hp, and slightly reduced accuracy. ¹
• Small SpiderBot health reduced from 80hp down to 70hp, and their speed is reduced from 300 down to 280. ¹
• Grays take 10% damage from fire and plasma, instead of being completely immune. They also have slightly reduced accuracy. ¹
• Robots are less resistant to plasma damage than in vanilla. ¹
• MJ12 Commandos take bonus damage from Sabot rounds (although you might want to save it for SpiderBots instead!). ¹
• Howard Stronger: has ballistic armor (in VMD he will actually use the armor, otherwise he has extra health to pretend he's using the armor), and more randomized weapons. Also, his fears are removed.
• Private Lloyd gets promotions and becomes stronger like Howard Stronger.
• Anna Navarre and Walton Simons will now activate cloak more quickly. ¹
• Anna will no longer trigger your grenades in the 747 while she's allied with you. ²
• NPCs factor in their damage resistances when determining if a projectile is dangerous. (No more fire extinguisher cheese against Gunther.) ¹
• Increased running speed for Maggie Chow and Tiffany Savage. ¹
• Enemies with shields can get it disabled by EMP attacks, so you can deal full damage to them with damage types they were previously resistant to. ¹
• Some bosses are slightly more aggressive. ¹

Skills

• Hacking computers now uses 5 bioelectric energy per second. ²
• Slightly reduced the hacking speed for Advanced and slightly increased the hacking speed for Master. ¹
• Increased the skill cost for Trained Computers. ²
• Fire extinguishers now stack in your inventory, and the Environmental skill allows you to carry more. ¹
• The swimming, enviro, and demolition skills are slightly cheaper. ²
• Hazmat suits also help against fire, electricity, and explosions. ¹
• Enviro skill now gives a little passive damage resistance for the same damage types as Hazmat suits. ¹
• Demolition skill allows you to carry more grenades at once, increases damage and range for your grenade traps, speeds up your arming time for grenade traps, speeds up your fuse time for your thrown grenades, and gives you more time to defuse enemy grenade traps. ¹
• Heavy Weapon skill (from 100% to 160%) linearly increases movement speed with heavy weapons instead of only increasing it at the 150% cutoff. Microfibral Muscle also helps with movement speed with heavy weapons. ¹

Augmentations

• Semi-automatic augmentations (optional) ¹
  • Leave some augs enabled and they won't use energy except when they're needed. Applies to Ballistic Protection, Combat Strength, Aggressive Defense System, EMP Shield, Energy Shield, Environmental Resistance, Synthetic Heart, and Targeting. ¹
• Aqualung no longer costs energy, is always activated, and gives you infinite air. ¹
• Power Recirculator and Synthetic Heart no longer use energy and instead modify the energy cost of your active augs. Power Recirculator is always enabled. ¹
• Synthetic Heart now allows boosting some augs past max level. ¹
• Microfibral Muscle no longer has levels 2 and 3, so you only need one upgrade to get to max level. Previously there wasn't much point upgrading it past level 2. ¹
• Microfibral Muscle allows you to jump while carrying heavier objects. The first level allows jumping with chairs or trashbags. The second level (max) allows jumping with small metal crates. ¹
• Microfibral Muscle now also increases movement speed with heavy weapons if you have low skill. ¹
• Aggressive Defense System has increased energy usage to put it more in line with the other defensive/protection augs. ¹
• The EMP Shield augmentation is buffed by making levels 1 to 3 slightly stronger (level 4 was already 100% resistance), and all levels make you immune to scrambler grenades. ¹
• The Energy Shield augmentation uses 25 energy per minute like multiplayer, instead of 40 like vanilla singleplayer. ¹
• The healing aug now only heals up to a certain maximum health for each body part, but it heals 6 health per tick, 1 for each body part. Read the aug description to see how much health it will cap out at. ¹
• Max level of the Speed augmentation is slightly nerfed. Activating the Speed aug immediately uses 1 energy, so don't spam it on and off. ¹
• Spy Drone ¹
  • Significantly increased speed. ¹
  • Reduced energy cost. ¹
  • EMP blast is stronger but costs 10 energy. ¹
  • Disabling it without the EMP blast costs no additional energy. ¹
• The Light augmentation uses zero energy and is brighter. ¹
• The Vision Enhancement augmentation and Tech Goggles can now see through walls at all levels and at greater distances. They can also see through walls for inventory items (even nanokeys!), containers/crates, electronic devices, and datacubes. ¹

Weapons

• Dragon's Tooth Sword now does 24x1 damage instead of 20x5 in vanilla, but if you aim for the head you can still kill most enemies in 1 hit. ¹
• Sniper rifles no longer have almost perfect accuracy when not using their scope. ¹
• Throwing knives' speed and range increase with Low Tech skill. ¹
• Flare darts now set enemies on fire for 3 seconds. ¹
• Assault rifles have a base damage of 4 instead of 3, which gives it a better range for being randomized (50% up to 150% by default). ¹
• Pistols have a base damage of 12 instead of 14. ¹
• Stealth Pistols have a base damage of 9 instead of 8. ¹
• The accuracy of both pistols is buffed. ¹
• The ranges of the assault rifle and both pistols are nerfed. ¹
• The Range weapon modification is buffed. ¹
• Laser sight mods can be applied to crossbows and plasma rifles. ¹
• Fixed a quick scope exploit. Scope view now has a very slight instant shake. ¹
• The PS20 has been upgraded to the PS40 and does significantly more damage. ²
• PS20s and PS40s get thrown away more quickly after being fired. ¹
• Plasma rifles do 18 damage instead of 8 and have a reduced blast radius (this brings it closer to the pre-GOTY damage value, and makes the weapon worth using). ¹
• Robots have reduced resistance to plasma damage. ¹
• EMP grenades and spy drone attacks now disable enemy shields (MJ12 Commandos, Gunther, etc). This causes them to take full damage from damage types like plasma, fire, the prod, and tranquilizer darts. Maybe now you'll have a chance in Stick With the Prod Plus mode? ¹
• Scrambler grenades randomly toggle your augs on or off. They also work on turrets and cameras. ¹
• Gas grenades deal 2 damage to the player instead of 1. They will not kill you, but they will bring your torso health down to 1. ¹
• The sniper had a much longer cooldown than animation, especially on a bad seed, so we made it reload after every shot to reduce confusion. ¹
• Both shotguns are slightly buffed. ¹
• If you loot a weapon that you already have and you're full on ammo, the remaining ammo will stay on the ground. ¹
• The regular sword has slightly buffed damage, speed, and range. ¹
• Fixed shooting LAWs through narrow walls. ¹

Levels

• Paul will not give you a weapon on Liberty Island. We felt this just reduced variety because you could always take the same weapon.
• The door to the closet in Osgood and Sons in the first visit to Hell's Kitchen was made frobbable so if you find the key you can unlock it, or sometimes lockpick it. ¹
• Smuggler remembers that he let you in. If you give him the password "bloodshot" then his security bot will not shoot at you. ¹
• The NYC Warehouse District map is made slightly easier by adding thermoptic camo, ballistic armor, and fire extinguishers. ²
• The NYC Airfield mission has a few extra rebreathers, mostly because of Entrance Rando mode. ²
• Lowered the alarm panel inside the LaGuardia airfield boat house, which was too high up for enemies to use ¹
• NSF HQ made slightly easier by removing many crates and turrets. However, there's a karkian in the basement.
• Paul is now mortal during the UNATCO raid on his apartment, so you need to help him fight if you want him to stay alive! ¹
• The MJ12 jail cabinet not working with Agent Serman's key is fixed. ¹
• Slightly buffed the gas leak in the MJ12 Hong Kong helibase. ¹
• The freezer door in the Lucky Money Club can now be opened from the security computer in the boardroom. ²
• The Lucky Money Club has a datacube with the password for the security computer.
• The Nervous Worker in the VersaLife offices map now has a unique look. ²
• Made VersaLife Labs 1 elevator doors breakable because they can get stuck otherwise. ¹
• Added an alarm panel to the overlooking office in the VersaLife Level 1 Labs map. ¹
• Hong Kong has more strict flag checks, so you must actually attend the Dragon Head meeting in the temple and destroy the UC in order for Jock to appear and take you to the next mission. ¹
• Moved the laser triggers in the sewers in the final visit to Hell's Kitchen up a little bit so they are at the same height as other missions, letting you crouch under them. ¹
• Fixed an exploit in the final visit to Hell's Kitchen that let you avoid the MJ12 spawn trigger. ¹
• Jenny's phone number is now in a datacube since it's randomized (but it always ends in a 9 so it rhymes with the song).
• The large fans in the superfreighter mission (the one in the roof entrance and the one below decks) can be disabled. ¹
• Le Merchant is added to Paris before the radioactive room, near Aimee, just in case you need a hazmat suit (but only if item shuffling is enabled).
• A nanokey for Apartment #12 is added to Champs Elysseys (only if goals rando is enabled, because Nicolette can be up there).
• Public terminals in the lobby of the Paris hostel are now Guest Registries and show if Jaime or Nicolette are inside the locked room. (Only if goals rando is enabled.)
• The M12 Vandenberg Command Comms doors will now open immediately when releasing the friendly bots. This helps a lot for Stick With the Prod modes. ²
• Speedrun mode adds a TNT crate next to Tiffany Savage in the gas station map that explodes 15 seconds after the alarm is set off.
• The Silo map slide has reduced friction. ¹
• The Silo map requires you to use the security computer to redirect the missile, and to stop Howard Strong. ¹
• The Area 51 surface map fan shaft route is a bit more difficult to take. ¹
• The Area 51 Sector 4 map is made slightly easier by reducing the rate of enemy spawning by UCs. ¹