I haven’t become this obsessed with a roguelike since Balatro. Yes, Ball x Pit sits in esteemed company and, no, I’m not touching Slay the Spire 2 until its full release. Ball x Pit sat high up on my Game of the Year list for 2025, and any time developer Kenny Sun and Friends adds more to the game, I jump right back in to see what delicious ball-based concoction they’ve conjured this time. The ominously-named Shadow Update promises ninjas, guildhalls, and time-bending balls – and I can’t wait to lose all my free time all over again.
If you haven’t been blessed with the joys of Ball x Pit before now, first of all: where have you been? Second of all, I’m so envious that you get to experience it for the first time. It combines that engaging Breakout-style pinball action with relentless waves of enemies and brutal boss fights. There’s also a town building element, all your usual roguelike unlockables, and more.
However, my favorite part is the balls. You can unlock balls with all sorts of powers as you play through the game and, even better, you can combine them to create wacky combinations to tear through levels with ease. The right combination of ball and character can carry you far, and creates one of the most enticing gameplay loops in recent memory.
Kenny Sun and Friends doesn’t so much change things with each major patch, but adds to what’s already in the game. So, the Ball x Pit Shadow Update adds two new characters (a ninja and a miner), four new passive abilities, 11 new balls, and a guildhall to build in your settlement.
The most exciting headlines here are The Tiptoer and The Tunneller. I’ll leave you to work out which is the ninja and which is the prospector, but their abilities look curious. The former can stay undetected by enemies at close range, and the latter fires balls that wrap around the screen instead of stopping at its edge.
The new balls sound fun, too. One bends time in ways that I can only imagine, another freezes enemies in place, and a third allows you to teleport randomly around the screen. If that’s not chaotic enough, there are eight more balls that the developer is keeping tight-lipped about for the time being.
However, the most underrated addition might be one passive ability. Full Metal Rapier scales your damage based on how much stuff is on screen, and Arrow of Fate makes you immune to incoming projectiles while firing back bursts of baby balls when you’re hit. I can only imagine the combos that this will create as players intentionally take damage in order to trigger more and more balls on screen.
The Ball x Pit Shadow Update is available on Steam now, for free. You can download it here.
The 18 additions in this update create an impressive 88 combinations of character, passive, and ball – and that’s before you take into account the game’s existing content or combining those balls with each other to create new monstrosities. Frankly, I’m not math-y enough to work out just how many options the Shadow Update gives us, but I’ve never been more excited to say goodbye to any semblance of free time I may have had.
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