Arcade Mode, a new weapon wall and Gary
Three weeks of Earfh. Arcade Mode now has its own shop, level ups and two player local play. Eight new weapons, a reworked melee system, a rebuilt Harmonica Gun and a new act 1 boss named Gary, Middle Manager.
Earfh has moved a lot since the last post. Most of the work went into one place, Arcade Mode, and the rest went into what you hold while you play it.
Arcade Mode is a real mode now
Arcade is the wave mode. You work a shift, kill what walks in, and between waves you spend money. The shop is a full screen Procurement form, and a level up opens a Performance Review card with three picks.
A lot of the last three weeks was the scaffolding under that screen. Items now come in rarities with caps, prices follow a curve, and there are orders and mods that change how a build plays. The glossary lists the Arcade items too, so you can read what Quiet Hours does before you buy it. Sixty one item icons and nine evolved weapon sprites landed with it.
Two players can now share a shift on one machine. The lobby has a Roll Call and a Loadout step, each seat has its own stats, and a downed partner can be revived. Local co-op is live. Remote play is being worked on.
Eight new weapons
The guns and melee weapons grew by eight: the Sledgehammer, the Girder, the Heavy MG, the Minigun, the Shortbow, Ghenna Ralpher, Corrosive Feedback and the Harmonica Gun. Burn and Corroded are new statuses that come with them. Some weapons evolve into stronger sprites as you upgrade them, and the Demolition Rocket's evolution now widens its blast.
The Pressure Washer is a one handed weapon. Its Power Wash special sweeps a wider rainbow of water that lingers longer, and wet enemies take more from an Arc Blaster bolt.
The Harmonica Gun was rebuilt around technique stances. The d-pad picks how a note is played, and its All Hands shot is now slower so you can read it. Thirteen other specials got stronger in the same pass, among them Emergency Exit, Flash Cut, Surge, Grand Slam, Capacitor Dump, Quickdraw Volley, Mag Dump, Flat Hierarchy, Door Breacher, Scorched Earth and Second Helping.
Melee got a rework
Every melee weapon now has a heavy swing. A hybrid slot modifier lets a weapon take on the traits of another, and the Overhead Cleaver replaced the Overhead Slam. Hyperarmor and a flat armor stat arrived in the same pass. Two handed weapons trade a free hand for more damage and reach. A White Room training level, reachable from the main menu, lets you test any of it without a run on the line.
Gary, Middle Manager
Act 1 now ends on a new boss. Gary is a balding middle manager with a combover and a plaid suit, and he runs his fight in two forms. The first is ALL HANDS MEETING, behind a shield. The second is ACTING DIRECTOR, which starts at half health.
The fight uses the same moveset as the boss it replaced. The new part is the art and the writing, including a public address welcome that introduces him.
What the footage is
The screenshots and the video on the game page now come from a scripted capture tool that plays the real game through its own input. It is a bot, not a person, so the Arcade run on the page is a seeded wave played by a script, and the Gary clips start his health just above the second form threshold so both forms fit in under twenty seconds. The captions on the page say so.
What is next
Remote play is the next piece of the co-op work. After that come environmental effects (puddles under the Pressure Washer, fire that spreads, explosions that go through the same code as the new flame) and more elemental weapons.