Mecha Break Season 1 adds two new mechs, and dishes out compensation

The early signs pointed to Mecha Break having a massive launch, with its demo rising the ranks to briefly become one of the most-played games on Steam. While it certainly had a strong week one when it was released in July, numbers for the free-to-play PvP game quickly dropped off, and it hasn't managed to top 10,000 concurrents since August. Today, Amazing Seasun Games is launching its second season. With two mechs joining its roster, a wide range of balance changes, and plenty of events on the go, the developer will be hoping its new update breathes fresh life into the player base.

Mecha Break Season 1 (the launch was Season 0) is titled 'Pulse of the Indigo Stone.' Its headliners are the two new strikers joining the lineup. Both the UBP-D06A HEL and NGS-X24IT ALPHARD are medium-weight attackers, but they have very different approaches to battle. If you like to tackle the best multiplayer games in a more thoughtful, sneaky fashion, you'll love Hel's reflective, deceptive kit. It's basically the giant metal equivalent of the TF2 Spy, able to disguise itself as an enemy striker of your choosing, preventing opponents from locking on, with the illusion only briefly shattering if you attack or are pinged by recon.

Hel's main weapon is a long-range emitter that can flip between close-range and sniper modes. In the former, it shoots out bouncing arcs of electricity that ping between enemies to deal energy damage. With the latter, you can bring out the scope to lock onto targets from increased distance and deliver punishing, continuous beams of plasma. Hel also has access to a reflector drone that bounces attacks back at nearby targets, and a pulse trap drone that goes into stealth when deployed and staggers any foes that step within its range.

Alphard, on the other hand, is a beast of all-out aggression, favoring frontline bombardments. Its main autocannon pounds targets with 12-round armor-piercing bursts, dealing heavy ballistic damage, while its rocket pod sidearm brings blast damage to the table. Its aux abilities are a barrage of multilock missiles, a 'rapid assault mode' that zooms you forward at high speed, boosting your own lock-on range and reticle size while also causing your evades to break enemy lock-on.

Finally, Alphard's electro-trail ability deploys an explosive wire that can bypass enemy fluid armor to deal physical damage and stagger. It needs you to be in rapid assault mode and locked onto a target to activate, but leaves a stream of smoke that destroys drones and causes interference to any enemy strikers that it covers. Alongside these two newcomers, the developer has made a range of balance changes across the rest of the free Steam game's roster, hopefully making more options feel viable.

Amazing Seasun has also responded to player complaints about the schedule changes that left some feeling short-changed about the end of its first season. "To make it up to you, we're rolling out compensation for everyone who logged in during Season 0," it writes. If you signed the S0 Matrix Contract, you'll be granted 12,000 Mission Tokens (which aren't counted towards your season totals) and 10 Pulse Light supply crates. If you didn't sign the contract, you'll still get 3,000 Mission Tokens.

Mecha Break Season 1 launches today, Friday September 19, and you can play for free on Steam. Check the full patch notes courtesy of Amazing Seasun Games.

If you're playing, we've tested the best Mecha Break settings for optimal performance on PC and Steam Deck. Be sure to check the latest Mecha Break codes as well, in case any additional freebies land for the new update.

Has Mecha Break kept you coming back since launch, and will you be returning for Pulse of the Indigo Stone? Share your thoughts with us in our community Discord server, where you can chat with PCGamesN staff and readers.