As a player who has been paying attention to this game for a long time, the recent update to version 0.5.0 has indeed brought about considerable changes in the competitive environment. Let's talk about the core content of this update first: a new special zombie boss “Venom Ripper” has been added, and the damage coefficient and cooling time of some traps have been adjusted. The most obvious thing is that the previous speed-through style of play (relying on submachine guns + ground stab formations to clear monsters) is now very difficult, because the Venom Boss's AOE skills can directly destroy multiple traps, forcing players to switch to more flexible positioning and weapon switching strategies.
Judging from the results of my trial play, the priority of rifles has been significantly improved in the current version. For example, the M4A1 equipped with armor-piercing bullets can quickly break the boss's shield before it releases its venom, while the shotgun can easily become passive in later levels due to its rate of fire. Interestingly, the development team shortened the cooldown of the "ejection trap" from 15 seconds to 8 seconds, which allows experts to perform chain control operations in narrow passages. Currently, many high-level players have begun to develop the ultimate point-keeping tactic of "trap + melee weapon".
However, there are still hidden dangers in balance. In addition to the initial models of pistol weapons, the damage overflow of some high-rarity weapons (such as "Desert Eagle·Modified") is too obvious. With the critical hit entry, almost every ordinary zombie can be shot every two times, which is very discouraging for novices. In addition, in the weapon upgrade system of the secret base, the triggering probability of certain terms (such as "blood-sucking") is too high, which leads to a large number of "blood-sucking block flow" play styles in the qualifying matches, which reduces the enjoyment a lot. I hope these values can be adjusted in the next version so that different genres have opportunities to play.
In general, this update does increase the upper limit of operations, but the fault tolerance rate of teamwork is actually reduced. In the ranking match, more emphasis is now placed on one's proficiency in trap timing and boss action prediction. If you want to increase your score, it is recommended to give priority to practicing the combination of rifle + ejection trap, and at the same time become more familiar with the three types of jumping and slashing forward swings of Venom Boss. After all, to survive in the apocalypse, details determine success or failure 😎