- DINO MERCS is Competing in Steam Awards' Labor of Love! - 24 November 2025
We're thrilled to announce that DINO MERCS is in the running for the Labor of Love category in the Steam Awards 2025! If you love DINO MERCS and appreciate the spirit of its development, we would be incredibly grateful for your vote!
- Steam Spring Sale - 60% off! - 13 March 2025
The Steam Spring Sale is on from March 13th to 20th only. Grab DINO MERCS at a great price, perfect for you or a friend! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1827640/DINO_MERCS/
- Don't Sweat the Heat, Save on Summer Treats! - 28 June 2024
The Steam Summer Sale is on from June 27th to July 11th only. Grab DINO MERCS at a scorching price, perfect for you or a friend! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1827640/DINO_MERCS/
- What's Next For DINO MERCS - 19 March 2024
Hey everyone! It's been a week since DINO MERCS exited early access. It's been an exciting time and there's still more to come! If you've played the game, thank you so much! It means a lot to me (Tim, the dev) that you would spend your time playing my game. In this post, I'd like to give everyone an update about what's upcoming: Balancing the Game This is my first game, so I will be the first one to admit that I have a lot to learn about game design and balance. I'm continually working on tweaking variables and adjusting how the game plays and feels. You can expect to see regular patches that improve the game's balance (I've already released a few updates this past week). Whenever a larger patch/update is released, I'll do a formal post here on Steam. Have you noticed something in the game that doesn't feel balanced? Is a card too weak or too powerful? Is an enemy seemingly impossible t…
- DINO MERCS Rampages onto Steam! - 12 March 2024
Attention all mercenaries! The long-awaited release of DINO MERCS is finally here, unleashing its full glory on Steam! Strap into your boots and join the ranks of Dark Solar Defense to unleash your inner DINO MERC — a battle-hardened veteran ready for action. With four unique characters, each boasting their own skill set, you'll be equipped to wreak havoc on fascist forces like never before. But here's the twist: victory isn't just about brute strength. Master the Card Positioning System to outmaneuver your foes and strategically play your cards to evade chaos. As you build a deck that strikes terror into the hearts of rival mercenaries, remember: you don't just play your cards but the enemies as well. Be careful not to sabotage yourself in the heat of battle! So grab your gear, rally your comrades, and remember: In the chaotic dance of battle it's not just survival, but domination, tha…
- Patch v5.0.3 - 11 March 2024
I've got some fixes, adjustments, balancing, etc.! Hopefully these tweaks all improve the gameplay experience. There are still a number of things I'm experimenting with, and should be able to release those soon! - Smaller band of effect levels: +3x -2x - Add "none" slot in the middle - Modified damage profiles, but I will likely continue to revisit these - Fixes for Armor Bash & Energy Lash cards - Greatly increase bleeding and toxic gas damage - Increase (double) the effects of all status cards (panicked, dazed, etc.) - Lower all max stats, give characters and enemies lower max defensive stats overall - You now start runs with only 250 supplies to spend - Double cost of removing cards from deck, cost increases by +500 supplies each time to remove a card - Increase the cost of all cards (+250), and fix some card costs that didn't match rarities
- THE AGE OF YOLK IS OVER; 7 DAYS TO FULL RELEASE! - 5 March 2024
Get ready for the BIG BANG! We’re transitioning from early access to full release on 12th of March, 2024! Whether you're a battle-hardened mercenary or a green bean recruit, DINO MERCS is sure to leave you in awe! But before we unleash the mayhem, we've got some bug stomping and meat munching to do. Gotta get that primal vibe going, right? Ha! So sharpen those claws and chomp on that raw meat—it's gonna be a wild ride! Now, let's talk about what's crackin': Strategic deckbuilding: Beef up your deck after each round to outsmart rival mercs. Tactical card play: Utilize your and opponent's cards for maximum impact and tactical terror. Four unique characters: Each with their own special skills, strengths, and weaknesses for diverse gameplay. Multiple runs: Test your mercenary skills against various difficulties and enemies. Highscore chase: Dive into an arcade-style, endless mode with escal…
- Patch v5.0.2 - 8 February 2024
I've fixed another handful of things! - Changed Armored Division card to buff character's Max Armor instead of Aim - Fixed Tank Boss title (had wrong affiliation) - Fixed a Hot Zone description that was messing up the typing effect - Dramatically increased the speed text is typed out, sorry it was so slow before! - Fix the render order of the menu on the combat rewards store, so you can actually use it now Next up: I'm going to be doing quite a bit of balance changes. In particular, the power level of enemies and cards will increase at a slower rate, so things don't get so wild so quickly. If you have any thoughts on anything that seems out of balance, please let me know! -Tim, the Dev
- Patch v5.0.1 - 5 February 2024
Various players were experiencing some issues that I've now fixed! If you come across anything else, please let me know and I'll fix it asap. If you haven't played the game in a long time (several months or more), your save file may be incompatible. I had to make some breaking changes to save files a while back. So if you are playing for the first time in a long time, and get stuck on the "Unnusual Undertaking" splash screen, you may need to delete your save file or reinstall the game. I'm very sorry about that! I try to avoid this kind of thing but at a couple points during Early Access, the game data changed dramatically, meaning old save data was simply incompatible. Anyways, here's what I fixed: Sometimes the Utahraptor character loaded in, but was really tiny. It's normal sized now. The BSC Trooper enemy was invisible. It wasn't suppose to have those powers. It doesn't anymore. On…
- Update v5.0.0 - 3 February 2024
I know it's been a long time since I've given an update, sorry about that! Well, today I have big news: all the changes, fixes, and polish that have been simmering on the beta/test branch of DINO MERCS are now fully available to all players! This is the last *big* update before leaving early access. So there will be bugs, balance issues, and lack of polish in some areas. Please be patient with me while I clean everything up! From here on, you can expect a number of small patches and improvements. There are a ton of changes in this update. Like, I lost track of all of them. Here's a bunch of them: Combat encounter modifiers to make battles more interesting. Extra cover, sandstorms, sweltering heat, and more! Curated card pools for each playable character. Enhanced and refined status cards. Card art for just about every single card in the game! Attack animations for most characters (more…
- Patch v4.1.1 - 2 November 2023
Got a patch for the latest version of DINO MERCS! Includes these fixes and polishing: Fixed an issue where some common cards weren't unlocked by default, causing a bug on the unlocks screen. Fixed an issue where some stat cards were not being included in Simulated Combat, resulting in some cases where card descriptions were not 100% accurate. Fixed an issue where card descriptions sometimes had wording like "Aim + -12". Now it will be "Aim - 12". Massively buffed Support card passive effects since max stats are so much higher now. When you remove a Support card from your deck, the passive effect is now disabled. Adjusted and balanced the ramping up of Card Slot Effect Levels. Fixed broken Mecha-Styracosaurus character asset. Fixed a case of broken art on an enemy card. Fixed an issue with bonuses to Enemy HP/Shield/Armor not being applied as a run progressed. Fixed some UI issues with s…
- Early Access Release v4.1.0 - 29 October 2023
Early Access Release v4.1.0 is live on Steam! This update might not seem like much at first glance, but underneath the hood, there's a lot going on! NOTE: since the game is still in early access, please be aware there will be plenty of bugs, balance issues, and missing things. If you find any of these, please let me know here on Steam or on the discord server! Notable changes: Simulated Combat! Previously, if you looked at a card description, it would tell you its immediate effect. This was slightly misleading because things would perhaps change by the time that card actually resolved. Now, every time you reposition a card, the game simulates a turn of combat and shows you exactly how much damage the card will actually do. This took a while for me to actually implement because it's kinda tricky to do this simulated combat in a way that is high performing and doesn't mess with the actual…
- Patch 4.0.3 - 6 October 2023
New patch out! - There were some issues with how stat bars for the player and enemy were being initialized and/or updated at the beginning of combat encounters, leading to occasional situations where cards wouldn't be drawn. A few players reported this issue to me, and after this fix, I haven't experienced it again. But, please let me know if it reappears! - Ensure that enemy cards aren't added to the player deck in instances where you might retreat during the enemy turn or the enemy dies during their turn (e.g. bleeding damage). - Some minor UI polish for stat bars Next up, I'm working on a big balance patch that should make playing the game more enjoyable and smoother overall. Thanks everyone for being patient with me as I fix these various issues and work on polishing the game! -Tim (the dev)
- Patch v4.0.2 - 4 October 2023
2 patches in 1 day! Around 10 bugs down, probably around 200 more bugs to go... This month you'll see a lot of these patches. Again, a big thank you to anyone who finds a bug and reports it via Steam or Discord. It helps me a ton! Working solo on this project means that even if I do a ton of play-testing, I'll likely miss at least a few bugs every time. Here's what I fixed in this patch: - Potential fix for an issue where status cards persist in your deck after a combat encounter, leading to strange bugs and possible soft-locking. I say "potential" because I personally haven't encountered this bug (it was reported by a player), but I did see a possible issue in the code that I patched. - Red Geyser, Scare to Death, and Blindsided cards now add 2 status cards to enemy deck, instead of 1. - Made Primal Regeneration card description a bit easier to understand, it was kinda confusing. - Pan…
- Patch v4.0.1 - 4 October 2023
Got a few fixes for some things! You can expect quite a few patches over the next few weeks as I fix and clean up things and work on balancing the game. - Potential fix for a soft-locking bug that occurs after status cards are played - Fix bug where the code was trying to remove cards from card pool twice upon purchase - Fix incorrect description on enemy smoke grenade status card - Updated credits, was missing someone
- Early Access Release v4.0.0 - 3 October 2023
Early Access release version 4.0.0 is live for all players on Steam! This is another HUGE update. As always with updates this size, there will be bugs, balance issues, and broken things. If you have any issues, please let me know here on Steam or, even better, on the DINO MERCS discord. This update introduces a brand-new character: EPHEMERYS! Ephemerys is a stealthy close quarters assassin who prefers to strike from the shadows. She utilizes the new Stealth stat to quickly dispatch enemies. A number of brand-new cards have been added that give you Stealth, and use Stealth to land deadly blows. BOSSES have also been added! Bosses are encountered every 20 sectors and will seriously test your survivability. They get access to some of the most deadly cards in the game and provide a hefty challenge to various play styles. Currently, there are two bosses, with more coming soon! Here's a full…
- Patch v3.0.3 - 9 September 2023
Got a handful of fixes! Thanks for reporting fixes on the discord server and here on Steam, it's been super helpful. I've got a bunch of other fixes in the works as well. I'm in the process of reworking card slot effect modifiers, a change that should help simplify everything and improve the gameplay experience. In addition to that, I'll be improving status cards. Some cards produce way too many of them, and they can have an outsized impact (negatively) sometimes. Here's what this patch includes: - UI: add a note on unlocks page explaining how unlock points are gained - Bugfix: fix Enemy Headshot, Cruel Blade cards, they dealt damage to enemy instead of player - Bugfix: fix enemy and player Blazing Sun cards, in weak slots they imparted Enraged status cards instead of Overheated status cards - Bugfix: game could soft-lock around combat encounter three, due to some average/deadly enemies…
- Patch v3.0.2 - 4 September 2023
Got another patch released for v3! I'm still hunting down some hard-to-reproduce bugs. If you happen to encounter anything that doesn't seem right, please let me know here on Steam or even better, on the DINO MERCS discord server! The more details you can share, the better! Thanks in advance :) Here's what was changed and fixed: - New: Add option to Retreat from standard (non-Merc Killer) combat encounters - no rewards gained if you retreat - Bugfix: Fix Character Unlocks - T.Rex/Triceratops - Bugfix: Fix issue where if enemy has the first turn due to higher speed, the round would end after their turn finishes. Now rounds are always 2 turns - Bugfix: Hide "unreleased" stat STL from stat section - Bugfix: fix enemy CHOMP card, card effects were reversed - Bugfix: fix uncommon attack card negative effect modifiers Upcoming: - I'm going to be reworking how Card Slots work - More bug fixes…
- Patch v3.0.1 - 1 September 2023
Hey everyone - got a small patch to address some bugs: - Fixes broken tutorial screen - Fixes Auto Pistols - had Rare styling / cost, but it's a common card - Fix "View Deck" functionality on Combat Rewards Store I'll be continuing to make some fixes to cards that don't have correct effects in some card positions, plus I'm working on some balance fixes. I just got home from some traveling, so will be fully back to working on fixes and new content in the next couple of days. Thanks and hope you enjoy the new update! -Tim, the dev
- Welcome to Bonus Stage's Multiplayer Madness! - 1 September 2023
Blazing-fast action? No reloading? Epic headshots and ragdolls? Destroyed friendships? You got 'em all and much more with the 5v5 multiplayer shooter The Riflemen. Out Now on PC. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2022330/The_Riflemen/ A word from our community manager during Gamescom: "YOU PIECE OF S**T FINGERS WHY YOU ARE NOT SCORING GOALS???" Graviators bring some electrified battles onto your screens. It's like pong but in 2020's. Grab a ball onto your gravitation field and dash to slam the ball to a goal. Sounds easy, right? Try it and do not blame us when you start hating your friends. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1958540/GRAVIATORS/
