Saros Zenith update: 6 things the free patch adds

Housemarque's bullet-hell shooter Saros has its first big free update. Zenith is out today (19 October) for every owner at no extra charge, design lead Abebe Tinari wrote on the PlayStation Blog. The studio had two goals: give people who have finished the game a reason to come back, and make it easier for newcomers to get in. Here is what is new.

Slow Game Speed

The headline accessibility option. It slows the whole game down so you have more time to read enemy attacks and choose to jump, dash, shield or parry. Crucially, the bullets do not get any fewer, you just get more time. You set how much slower it runs, and it can switch on automatically in combat or only when you toggle it.

Auto-fire

With Auto-fire on, your weapon shoots by itself whenever you aim at an enemy, so you do not have to hold a button down for long stretches. Reloading is still manual, and a perfect reload still needs good timing. Zenith also adds Motion Sensor Aiming, which works alongside the existing button remapping.

20 new Carcosan Modifiers

The modifier system that tunes difficulty grows a lot. There are 10 new Protection Modifiers that make the game more forgiving. One, Corruption Melee Enhancement, turns built-up Corruption into extra damage on your next melee hit. There are also 10 new Trial Modifiers that make it harder. With Hostile Regeneration, for example, stunned large enemies recover quickly unless you finish them with a melee strike.

Eclipse Layers New Game+

Once you beat Saros, new nodes appear in the Armor Matrix and unlock Eclipse Layers, a tougher version of the game with altered rules. Before each run you must pick enough Trial Modifiers to reach a set threshold, from 25 Trials in total, so you build your own challenge.

A golden Crown and 12 Visions

In Eclipse Layers, the hero Arjun wears a Crown and his armour glows gold. The more Trials you stack, the bigger the Crown gets. It also unlocks new collectibles: 12 Visions, murals and messages around Carcosa whose extra story text only shows at higher Crown levels.

Overlord Rush

A new boss mode, started from the Primary Unit in Passage, that has you race through the game's Overlords against an online leaderboard. The Incursion and Ascension sets have three bosses each and take about 10 minutes. Totality lines up all eight in a row. You can filter scores by main weapon. Leaderboards need an internet connection and a PlayStation account.

Bullet-heavy games depend on clear visuals and sound cues. If you are upgrading your setup, see our guides to gaming monitors and gaming headsets. And for another recent milestone, see our rundown of Enshrouded 1.0.