It’s really happening! Awesomenauts is going free to play on May 24th! Soon everyone can be an awesome space mercenary!
Going free-to-play has always made sense for Awesomenauts, as more players simply means it’s a better game for everyone. It greatly improves the matchmaking and networking experience, and brings more people to community events and the amazing community-made mods.
We couldn’t have done this without your support! Your continued feedback inspires us to dream big, and many of the changes we’re introducing with 4.0 are a direct result of that. Thanks to your support, Awesomenauts has grown from a scrappy indie title to one of the few enduring online games. And with your help we’re going to launch Awesomenauts into the stratosphere!
Before we get down to talk about all the cool new stuff, we need to mention two very important things that will stay the same amidst all of these big changes:
- Awesomenauts is still the platforming MOBA you know and love. Nothing changes to the gameplay.
- We won’t sell power. You can’t pay to win. Players won’t be able to spend real money to get an advantage during matches.
So, with that out of the way: let’s get down to all the cool new stuff in this update!
We couldn’t possibly have made this massive update without the support of all our awesome existing players! That’s why everyone who played Awesomenauts before April 26th will automatically be rewarded ‘Founder’ status, granting an exclusive portrait and medal! Of course, you’ll also have a huge head start over all newcomers, as you will already have lots of characters unlocked!
Even better, if you own the base game plus both expansions before May 24th, you’ll automatically be upgraded to the ‘All Nauts Pack’! This grants you every ‘Naut, forever.
And as always, your feedback remains essential! So don’t hesitate to tell us what you think of all these changes.
Custom Portraits, Droppods and Medals have been added to make sure there is plenty of cool stuff to unlock! To help show off these sweet new unlockables we’ve also taken the opportunity to completely overhaul the match intro and scoreboard. Not only does the new intro show off your Droppod, Medals and Portrait, it also gets everyone pumped to get started!
Portraits can be gained through normal progress, while Medals are rewarded for achieving special feats. Droppods on the other hand, are bought with the new currency: Awesomepoints!
When playing matchmade games, both your Profile and played Naut will gain experience! And both of them can go up in level separately, granting you unique rewards. Items are now the first thing a ‘Naut unlocks, which makes completing your build much faster. Levels will also get you Portraits, Awesomepoints and other goodies!
The Profile screen has also be revamped to hold all everything progress related. Here you’ll find your stats, ‘Naut progress, Medals and Portraits.
On top of experience, playing will also get you Awesomepoints! These can be spent on unlocking any ‘Nauts you don’t own yet, or the new Droppods and Portraits. Every Awesomenaut can be unlocked this way, even if they were previously part of an expansion. There’s also a new testing environment for ‘Nauts you don’t currently own yet, so you can try before you buy!
Real money is still the only way to buy the ‘Naut skins, but can now also be used to buy individual ‘Nauts and Droppods.
If you just want to have all ‘Nauts available to you at all times, this Pack is for you. It not only gets you all current ‘Nauts, but also all the new ones as they come out! The Pack will also grant ‘Collector’ status, giving you an exclusive Medal and Lonestar skin.
And as mentioned before, if you own the game plus both expansions before May 24th you will automatically be upgraded to the ‘All Nauts Pack’! To help all our existing players upgrade to this Pack, we’ll be discounting the expansions until the free-to-play launch.
Not feeling very competitive today? Team up with your fellow man and take down a team entirely comprised of Bots! When firing up this new mode you can pick you own difficulty, and Galactron will go look for allies with similar wishes and a low ping. Beating up the Bots will net you rewards just like the regular vs. Player mode, so no worries about missing out.
Want to pick up some new Awesomenauts or Droppods? You need to be in the Armory! Here you can easily browse all the content you’ve unlocked so far. Every item can be digged into for more details, including backstories and splash art. In case of the characters there’s lots of info on their gameplay too, including their Shop items and skills. You can even take characters for a quick testdrive!
Reaching level 5 will grant you a special recruitment code, which you can give to any other players!
New players will be able to enter your key and unlock Raelynn, for free! Any player can only be recruited once!
Whenever a player that you have recruited reaches level 8, you will gain 1000 Awesomepoints! You may recruit up to 50 players this way.
To help all those new players get their bearings in Awesomenauts, we’ve completely overhauled the tutorial. It features a lot less player downtime and also explains every aspect of the game a lot more thoroughly. The first mission still features Sheriff Lonestar, but in the second players can give Scoop a whirl to learn all about pushing and staying alive.
All in all, there’s a lot of awesome stuff in the new update, and there’s even more to look forward to in the coming months.
Exciting times are coming, and we’d once again like to thank you for all the support you’ve given us over the years. We’re excited about the future, and hope you’ll join us on this next step in our adventure!
Thank you!
– Ronimo Games