I quite enjoyed my first look at Neon Abyss 2, but my thoughts back then echoed the general consensus: that Veewo Games needed to up their game in a couple of areas.
Since the game’s EA launch back in July, things have been picking up, and now there’s a new piece of DLC that should help boost the game’s appeal further, especially amongst those who loved the first one.
The name of the new expansion is Archenemy Returns, and it’s currently free-to-download over on Steam, if you’re an Early Access player. It sounds like the plan is to make this a paid-for expansion at some point down the line, when the game leaves EA. That said, it is made clear that if you claim it now, it’s yours to keep.
Focusing on the here and now, there are time-limited cosmetic items out for Halloween, although you will need to log-in before November 14th to claim them.
Archenemy Returns – Free For Now
The new expansion also adds several items (12 of them), tons of optimisations, as well as weapons (14), including some from the original game (4 of the 14). Check out the lists below for more details:
- Jimmy: Fires fishbones that split into bone spikes.
- Famine: Fires homing piercing bullets.
- Sentry: Sacrifices some performance but gains a homing module.
- Noise: Fires slow-moving orbs that split into homing bullets upon vanishing.
- Origami: Rapidly fires scattered flying paper sheets.
- Salute: Fires both spark bullets and magic bullets—the latter release fireworks upon vanishing.
- Fissure: Fires energy rocks that create shockwaves upon vanishing.
- Thunderclap: Every few attacks, fires enhanced lightning arrows.
- Spine: Rapidly fires consecutive spikes.
- Spray: Fires paintballs that deal area damage on hit.
- Merryghost: Fires bouncing magic bullets.
- Suppress: Fires shotgun pellets—every fourth shot is enhanced.
- Duel: Fires shotgun pellets, dealing massive damage at close range.
- Deterrence: Fires multiple random lightning bolts at enemies.
As for the headline addition, the 34 bosses from the first NA are either in the game now, or coming to the game soon. At the moment, it sounds like they’ve got the regular bosses sorted (24/24), but there are still several Managers to go (3/11).
According to Veewoo, “all 34 bosses from the original Neon Abyss will gradually return to the abyss! With skill optimizations, visual upgrades, and complete redesigns for Managers, they’ve evolved into deadlier foes.”
They also noted that “some Managers in this DLC are still undergoing optimization,” adding that they “will complete them during EA and add an entirely new Manager.”
The Steam page for the Archenemy Returns DLC has a boss-by-boss checklist, so you can see how things are progressing directly, should you so wish. In the meantime, here’s a picture of Zeus!
