Hello folks! 👋

This major update introduces a brand new way of playing the game, designed for those who are craving a more adrenalinic challenge: enter Speedrun Mode!


Too relaxed? Not enough excitement? This mode is for you!

By visiting the "Data" tab under the "Options" menu, you can now enter Speedrun Mode.

Entering Speedrun Mode temporarily pauses your current playthrough, and restarts the game from scratch, introducing a new UI with a timer and speedrunning splits at the bottom of the screen.

As soon as you pop the first bubble, the timer begins! This is your cue to play as fast as possible: click quickly but precisely to keep your combos up, and optimize your decision-making to reach your goals as soon as possible.

Improving your clicking accuracy/speed and making better purchase choices are key to succeed in this mode.

Speedrun playthroughs must be completed in one sitting. Closing the game ends your current speedrun and returns to your main playthrough. You can also return the main playthrough at any point in time by pressing the "End Speerun" button in the "Data" tab.

Note that this mode is completely optional! If speedrunning is not your thing, feel free to ignore it completely.


Earn your bragging rights!

For the initial release of the Speedrun Mode, I decided to focus the competition on the first and second prestiges (level 2 and level 3). I feel that the game balance up to the second prestige is quite good. Also, I have plans to add some new permanent PP purchases obtainable on the third prestige, so it doesn't make sense to include it in the Speedrun Mode before it gets updated.

I've introduced nine new achievements, all about speedrunning the aforementioned prestige levels:

Some of these are hard, and will require highly-optimized runs to get -- don't give up!


Compete with other players, officially!

If you want to compete with other players, there is an official BubbleByte speedrun.com leaderboard[www.speedrun.com]!

I have already submitted my best times:
- Prestige Lv. 2: 05m14s
- Prestige Lv. 3: 21m52s

Do you think you can beat me? 😁

You can watch my speedrun on YouTube, but don't steal my strategies! 😋

There are always some bugs...

• Fixed tooltips for global Engicat and Mousecat multiplier upgrades not showing "MAX".
  
• Fixed borderless fullscreen mode actually resulting in exclusive fullscreen mode.
  
• Fixed background/music not automatically switching after completing a shrine after 1st prestige.

As always, thank you so much for playing and for your extremely valuable feedback!

Please consider leaving a review on the Steam Store yet -- it really helps with BubbleByte's visibility. Also, consider providing feedback in the "Discussions" forum or on the official Discord in order to help make the game even better!

Keep on popping! ❤️


(Note: in case of any unexpected bug or issue introduced by the new version, you can always revert to the previous one by selecting the "prev" branch through the game's properties on Steam, in the "Betas" tab.)