Whatever your views on the behemoth gacha games such as Honkai Star Rail and Genshin Impact, there are countless others, such as Solo Leveling: Arise, that are worth squillions to their developers.
If the figures are to be believed, Netmarble made over $100 million in the first three months of SLA alone. And that was the middle of last year.
A little over one year on, and Solo Leveling: Arise welcomes K-Pop royalty I-dle to the game in its latest update. The South Korean group, consisting of Soyeon, Miyeon, Minnie, Yuqi, and Shuhua, is responsible for nearly eight million Spotify streams per month, and their debut album sold 83,000 copies within 24 hours. It’s not tough to see why Netmarble wants them involved.
How to get Miyeon and Shuhua in Solo Leveling: Arise
From today, Solo Leveling players can add Miyeon and Shuhua to their roster of playable hunters simply by playing the game during the I-dle event through the special Collaboration Pass. Completing the event story mode will unlock other rewards, including additional copies of both K-Pop stars.
Other notable new stuff
Also arriving in the update is a new Story Expert mode for those looking for a bigger challenge. Players who complete all chapters in this mode can earn up to 35,000 Essence Stones as a reward. In addition, players can challenge new Encore Mission bosses, Incaro and Helder, who will appear in a single dungeon.
What is Solo Leveling: Arise
The game version is based on the super-popular webtoon that has been viewed an astonishing 14.8 billion times – yep, that’s nearly twice the population of the planet – so two views each, can you remember when yours were?
The game is free to play, and you can stick to that format if you choose, but most people will purchase in-game currency to customize their character and purchase better equipment, alongside the gacha element of pulling for new weapons and characters.
Is it for you? Well if you are fan of gacha and haven’t checked it out yet and want to get away from the big hitters in the space, you will definitely appreciate what Soloe Leveling: Arise has to offer.
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What are the new All Star Tower Defense X codes? Of course you do. You won’t be pulling new units without them unless you’re speedrunning death on a low-level stage. This long-in-development sequel to Roblox tower defense legend All Star Tower Defense (or simply ASTD) brings new and old units together. Get the lot with ASTDX game codes.
Here are the All Star Tower Defense X codes for launch:
FOURTYFIVELIKES – (NEW)
somanylikes – Requires level 3 (NEW)
AFIRSTTIME3001 – 500 gems, 5 Basic Capsules, 20 Trait Burners, 2 Skill Orb Bags, and a Cloud Summon (NEW)
FREENIMBUSMOUNT – Requires level 10 (NEW)
Expired codes
No ASTDX codes have expired yet.
How do I redeem ASTDX codes?
Follow these steps to claim codes in All Star Tower Defense X:
Launch All Star Tower Defense X on Roblox.
Click the Twitter icon button in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
Type or paste a working ASTDX code in the box.
Click Redeem.
Note that while codes can be redeemed without joining a Roblox group or liking the game page, some codes already have level requirements. You’ll need to get grinding to keep using ASTDX codes going forward.
What are the ASTDX social rewards?
You can get 100 gems, a Crystal Summon, and ten Trait Burners through the ASTDX Social Rewards button. The steps are detailed in developer FruitySama’s YouTube video, but we’ll break them down into steps below for easy reading:
Subscribe to the FruitySama, Xeem, and NavyXFlame channels on YouTube.
Click your Channel/YouTube avatar.
Click Settings (or View Channel on mobile).
Click Privacy (or Edit on mobile).
Turn off ‘Keep all my subscriptions private’.
Repeat the second step, this time clicking YouTube Studio (go through Google on your browser for mobile).
Copy your URL.
Paste the URL into the Social Rewards button in the ASTDX code screen.
Click Redeem.
Veterans of the old game can get extra ASTDX freebies by logging into the original All Star Tower Defense. Loading that up should boot you into All Star Tower Defense X with some bonuses for being a long-term fan of the franchise.
How to get more All Star Tower Defense X codes
According to the in-game code box, new ASTDX codes will come from users FruitySama, GakiRBLX, and NavyXFlame on Twitter.
While Roblox developers have a pretty terrible record when it comes to sticking with dropping codes on traditional social media platforms these days, the ASTD team actually came through on their promise in the past. If they stick to tradition, they may very well post codes on their Twitter pages.
Other than that, new codes for ASTDX are confirmed to drop on the old ASTD Discord. Join up and check the ‘game-announcements’ channel: especially around the launch period.
After that, new updates are sure to see new ASTDX codes drop. Tag yourself as one of the ‘Code Campers’ to get pinged if they remember to tag the group in a code post.
Not up for joining another Discord server? Not to worry: we list new All Star Tower Defense X codes here as they drop. We also test existing codes and shift them into an expired list to save you time otherwise wasted on expired promo codes.
Feeling a little frustrated after a bad round? Hit a wall with your units? Take a break with some of the best Roblox games around right now. If you need some time away from the platform, give one of the best free PC games a go instead.
Many of us like to dabble in the world of tabletop gaming as well as settling down with our favorite console or PC game. If that includes you, and you are a fan of the hugely popular Dragonbane TTRPG, then you are very much in luck today.
Publishers Free League have teamed up with mega miniature maker Titan Forge in a partnership that will launch a range of high-quality miniatures for the award-winning fantasy RPG.
Everything We Know About the Dragonbane Miniatures Launch
The Northern Beasts miniatures sets will primarily focus on the monsters found in the Dragonbane Core Set and Bestiary, based on the amazing art by Johan Egerkrans and David Brasgalla, along with a range of heroes to face the horrifying beasts.
Perhaps the coolest aspect of all of this is that he models will also be available for you to 3D print your own at home if you have a resin or decent-quality 3d printer with the STLs heading to MyMiniFactory soon.
If you lack the necessary equipment to manufacture your own models, then the boxed options are for you.
Each set will include an original mini-adventure by Free League featuring the monster in question, giving Gamemasters everything they need to drop the miniatures straight into a Dragonbane campaign.
You can be notified when the Kickstarter launches by signing up here to receive a nudge. No word on price yet, but these will be an essential purchase for Dragonbane players when they arrive.
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Of all the upcoming survival games we know about, Subnautica 2 is right up there as one of the most anticipated. There’s been a lot of excitement for a new underwater adventure, this time with full co-op support so you can explore alien seas with a friend. This week, that excitement has faded and been replaced with concern and anger after Krafton, the game’s publisher and owner of developer Unknown Worlds, removed the studio’s co-founders and president, replacing them with a new CEO. After widespread outcry, and even calls for a boycott of the game, Unknown Worlds has followed this news up with a statement reassuring fans that the vision for Subnautica 2 remained unchanged and that no extra monetization was being added to the game.
Unknown Worlds’ previous leadership team – Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire – were instrumental in shaping the vision and delivering the original Subnautica – one of the best survival games ever, in our view. They’ve been replaced by Steve Papoutsis, who was most recently the CEO of Striking Distance, the developer behind Dead Space-esque horror game The Callisto Protocol. Krafton says it tried to find a way to keep the departing trio involved in the development of Subnautica 2, but those attempts were clearly unsuccessful.
No explicit reason was given for Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire’s departure, but the wording of Krafton’s statement suggests that Subnautica 2 was potentially failing to meet some internal development goals.
“As part of its oversight, Krafton is committed to achieving regular milestones to assess progress across its creative studios. These reviews, based on clearly defined metrics and targets, will help ensure that games meet both creative and quality standards. This process is essential to delivering the right game at the right time. Unknown Worlds’ new leadership fully supports this process and is committed to meeting player expectations.”
This decision went over terribly with fans of the series. While it took more than three people to create the original Subnautica, the sudden removal of these key figures is concerning and unsettling. The community’s anger has certainly been made clear on forums and social media – one popular thread on the game’s subreddit is titled “Subnatuica’s soul has just been ripped out,” while another calls for a boycott of the game and demands players unwishlist on Steam. Subnautica 2 remains the second most-wishlisted game on Valve’s platform, at the time of writing, with only Hollow Knight Silksong above it.
Seeing this outcry, Unknown Worlds has released a statement to try and reassure fans that this change in leadership is not going to affect the initial vision of the game. “When it comes to Subnautica 2, the team that has been working on the game day-to-day over the last few years remains completely unchanged. That team includes veterans of the Subnautica series, dating back to the earliest days of the original Subnautica, to the many incredible and talented developers who came aboard to help us bring our vision for Subnautica 2 to life.”
The statement also debunks some speculation from fans that the change in leadership occurred because the old team was resistant to putting additional monetization into Subnautica 2. “Nothing has changed with how the game is structured. It will remain a single-player first experience, with optional co-operative multiplayer. No subscriptions. No loot boxes. No battle pass. No microtransactions.”
It’s a pretty definitive statement that’ll reassure fans on the gameplay front, but the entire post (and Krafton’s initial announcement) fails to explain why such a drastic decision was made so near to the Subnautica 2 release date – the game is set to drop in early access before the end of this year. Players certainly want answers, and I think a lot of the outrage could’ve been avoided if Krafton clearly provided them.
To see what else is on the horizon this year alongside Subnautica 2, check out our upcoming games list. Alternatively, if constructing bases was your favorite part of the original, here are the best building games on PC right now.
You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.
In Episode 606 of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off talking about my plans for this weekend, which has resulted in this week’s show being a bit shorter than normal. We also go over some more updates on our Patreon situation, which has been trending upwards lately. Thank you for the support! We briefly touch on the latest version of iOS 18 before hopping into listener emails which leads into some interesting discussion, as always. Like, is the internet more dangerous now for kids than it was when I was growing up in the ’90s? We weigh in! Finally Eli gives us a rundown of his Dungeons & Dragons situation and the hardships between physical and digital ownership.
Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to [email protected]. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated!
As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer.
I am not sure anyone was shocked this week when a multi-billion-dollar company carved its way through the videogaming arm of its workforce, laying off thousands of people who, until that point, had been diligently coding the games it had approved.
Minutes later came the mealy-mouthed soundbites about restructuring, innovating, and an exciting future for all. All released to the background of thousands of resumes being hurriedly and worriedly emailed to the recruiters of the three jobs that are available.
“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace.”
10,000 jobs cut in 2023, another 9,000 now. How’s that positioning going Microsoft?
Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer was also at it, “I recognize that these changes come at a time when we have more players, games, and gaming hours than ever before. Our platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger. The success we’re seeing currently is based on tough decisions we’ve made previously.”
The desks were emptying at studios such as Rare, King, and Bethesda, among many others, as he spoke.
The elephAInt in the room
Executive Producer at Xbox Game Studios, Matt Turnbull, will be wishing he hadn’t posted his advice on LinkedIn to those booted out to load up ChatGPT and get it to help you with the recruitment process. He’s now removed it, and I feel a bit sorry for him as he was trying to be helpful. And LinkedIn is a dumpster fire at the best of times, but still, if you still have your job when colleagues are losing theirs, my advice would be to keep your head down.
It’s not clear if or indeed any of the job cuts are as a direct result of Microsoft’s love-in with Artificial Intelligence. It would be silly to presume there is no connection, and this is the way the world is headed wither way. But we don’t have to like it
The thing is, and I have said this vociferously before when industry layoffs occur, that all that ever happens is that you get a few media outlets – many themselves often under constant fear of staff cuts, highlighting the problem, and then some bleating on Reddit from players who were looking forward to a particular game coming out that has now been canned, and that’s it. Rinse and repeat.
Seemingly ad infinitum.
Nothing new
I interviewed a long-standing CEO of a prominent publisher not long back – an interview you will be able to read in full on The Escapist in the near future and he told me he thought the games industry had always been a mess. And he has been in the game for decades.
He also said that perhaps it is time to start looking at things the way the movie industry does. There, you don’t so much work for a company but on a project. When the project is complete – ie, the movie gets released, that’s it. Job done, and you move on to the next one. If a movie gets canned, same thing.
It’s just a different perception and maybe the way things are already going, even if it’s not being outwardly stated.
Do most people care that the gaming industry is so dysfunctional?
Nobody objects for more than a few hours. Nobody is held to task. Corporations gonna corporation, and we just accept it. There’s no, “well, you sacked all those Perfect Dark devs, so we will hit you in the pocket by letting you stick your next Call of Duty where the sun don’t shine”.
Speaking of Perfect Dark, that’s another area where we should be outraged. I, like you, saw the gameplay trailer only a few months back and thought, yeah, that looks pretty cool. Now the game is canned for being in “poor shape,” and we are thinking, ‘but hang on, it looked alright to me.”
Now we find out that “demo” was somewhere between a fake and a load of sections frantically duct-taped together to hold it in one piece for the one minute the trailer lasted before presumably bursting into flames the second recording stopped.
Just stop lying to your audience.
Or at least if you continue to lie to us, and we find out, then there will be consequences for your profit and loss sheet. Which, let’s face it, is all they really care about. If it’s a “vertical slice”, tell us it is. But the push to see all the latest trailers at the same old games festivals means that companies feel the need to do this stuff.
Should we be bothered?
In the main, the games industry is not a cosy cottage industry. It is a behemoth full of corporations and money guys trying to extract the most cash from you. Some of you may be young enough not to remember it being any different, but it was. And it was better for it. But that version of the games industry couldn’t exist today. It is naive to think it could.
The cottage industry aspect survives in the form of (some) indie studios, but the world of the triple A (or even the AA or, just the bloody A) can be found north of Disaster Town. And then these companies have the gall to tell us we don’t own the games, only rent them. What happens? We complain for a few hours, then pre-order the next one so we can play it 48 hours early.
Maybe it really is all our fault in the first place.
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What are the Roblox the Hatch rewards? If you’re up for cracking eggs all summer long, this is the officially sanctioned block-based event for you. Split across multiple biomes, hundreds of games, and with numerous mechanics, the goal is simple: collect all ten eggs of a single element to earn a prize. Get the lot and you’ll spruce up your UGC catalog with glimmering goodies.
Roblox the Hatch has spread into some of the best Roblox games on the platform. If you’re not sure which ones to search for sacred eggs, let our guides, well… guide you. Double up with Fisch codes, Dig codes, and Arm Wrestle Simulator codes to claim in-game loot while you hunt for eggs to hatch.
All Roblox the Hatch rewards
Reward
Requirement
Funktastic Fritatta Boombox
Collect all 10 Connection eggs
Bizarro Benedict Hat
Collect all 10 Light eggs
Electro Eggalodon Tail
Collect all 10 Darkness eggs
Scorching Deviled Egg Horns
Collect all 10 Fire eggs
Egglectrified Adventurer’s Belt
Collect all 10 Earth eggs
Midnight Eggquarium Backpack
Collect all 10 Water eggs
Yolktaic Energy Wings
Collect all 10 Energy eggs
Timespun Halo
Collect all 10 Time eggs
Staff of the Geomancer
Collect all 10 Ice eggs
Dark Side of the Egg Aura
Collect all 10 Air eggs
Wearable egg head accessory 1
Quest – Collect all 100 eggs
Wearable egg head accessory 1
Quest – Complete the Finale
Throughout The Hatch, you have the ability to unlock 12 different ‘Solstice’ UGC items by collecting every egg from its respective element. You can also buy the lot for 1200-1600 Robux if you truly believe time is money.
Manage to score the whole set and they’ll be upgraded into fancier forms.
How to claim Roblox Hatch rewards
Once you collect the final egg in an elemental set, you need to head to the hatch point of the matching biome. This triggers an event where the final 11th egg of that series appears before you.
Agree to let it float around and all that’s left is to take it to that biome’s nest to hatch it, revealing the Roblox Hatch reward of that element.
Are there more Roblox Hatch rewards?
Some quests, found on the left side of the hub screen, award Hatch UGC, too. From inviting friends to collecting over 100 eggs, you can earn things like gelato you can equip, and unique head accessories.
We expect a couple more Hatch rewards to surface before the event ends on July 12. Take a look in the telescope behind the Connection portal and you’ll spot a meteor hurtling through the sky.
Expect the Hatch meteor to unlock the head accessory from the Finale quest. It could also have something to do with the ‘Something is Coming’ quests set to kick off on July 4, 2025.
How to get Eggs in Roblox The Hatch
Each biome within the Roblox the Hatch event hub houses eggs of a specific element.
It’s possible to find all ten eggs of an element in its respective zone if you’re lucky. Once you exhaust the spawns, you’ll have to resort to merging, trading, or searching for a single egg in each of that biome’s mountain of player-made games by walking into its portal.
You can also unlock eggs by clearing quests like discovering the biome’s portal, interacting with its decor, or completing obbies. It sounds easy, but with eggs of various rarities, getting lucky enough to find the lot can take some time. Cooperation is key.
The Hatch hub has daily events, too. These can make hunting for eggs a little easier. For example, the Merge Mania event on July 3 reduced how many duplicates were needed to merge eggs and increased egg spawns across the hub, making it possible to AFK farm eggs in each biome.
If you’re struggling to find a specific egg, it’s worth loading up the Hatch hub the next day to see if a fresh event might work in your favor.
And that’s it for Roblox The Hatch rewards for now. Remember: you have until July 12 to grab the lot. Done and dusted? Find your next obsession with the help of our list of the best free PC games. Like the random egg mechanic? You might enjoy the best gacha games on PC, too.
Three former top executives at Ubisoft have each received a suspended prison sentence, handed down by a court in Paris, after “enabling a culture of sexual and psychological harassment in the workplace”.
Between 2012 and 2020, the company’s office in Montreuii was rife with a toxic culture, leading to female employees enduring “pranks” such as being tied to a chair with tape, pushed into a lift and sent to a random floor, or being forced into doing handstands while wearing a skirt.
One female member of staff told the court, “He was my superior and I was afraid of him. He made me do handstands. I did it to get it over with and get rid of him.”
One worker, according to The Guardian, likened the office environment to a “boy’s club above the law,” where women were left to feel like pieces of meat.
Former editorial vice-president Thomas François, 52, was found guilty of sexual harassment, psychological harassment, and attempted sexual assault. He was given a three-year suspended prison sentence and fined €30,000 (£26,000).
Former chief creative officer Serge Hascoët, 59, was found guilty of psychological harassment and complicity in sexual harassment and given an 18-month suspended sentence and a fine of €45,000.
He had earlier told the court he was unaware of any harassment, saying: “I have never wanted to harass anyone and I don’t think I have.”
Former game director Guillaume Patrux, 41, was found guilty of psychological harassment and given a 12-month suspended sentence along with a fine of €10,000. He had denied all charges after being accused of threatening to carry out an office shooting and setting a co-worker’s beard alight.
Has the gaming industry really changed?
While these convictions stem back to events pre-COVID, and maybe companies are now forced to take their responsibilities to employees much more seriously, the level of abuse and harassment still directed towards female gamers and employees, especially online, has, if anything, multiplied.
Check out any videos by popular female gamers and peruse the comments – it will take you under three seconds before you encounter the creepy, the sinister, and the misogynistic, far outweighing the positive.
It’s depressing, and it needs to stop.
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Even beloved games like Baldur’s Gate 3 make inventory management a fuss, so it’s been wonderful watching the trend of indies striving to transform that busywork into something you want to do. Backpack Hero, the turn-based RPG roguelike from developer Jaspel, is just such a treat. It holds the highest rating among its run-based peers on indie site Itchio and boasts an 86% positive Steam rating from nearly 7,000 user reviews, and now you can get a copy for nothing thanks to this week’s Epic Games Store free games lineup.
Backpack Hero puts you in the shoes of a young rodent venturing into dangerous dungeons in an attempt to gather resources and rebuild their hometown of Haversack Hill. Strapped on your back is the eponymous magical sack, which gradually expands to offer slots for the various weapons, armor, items, and consumables you find along your way. This Resident Evil 4-style inventory Tetris is Backpack Hero’s ‘deckbuilding’ core, delivering a battle system that stands out even among our best roguelikes.
The way you lay out your gear determines their effects in battle. A basic wooden sword deals seven damage to a single target, for example, while a machete swings to deliver three damage to all your enemies. The soldier’s buckler grants block on use, but also increases the potency of any adjacent weapons for the remainder of the encounter.
Armor poses particular problems, as you need to place it in appropriate positions to maximize the benefits – helmets up top, boots down below, and so on. Manage to sort your gear correctly, however, and you’ll be able to overcome any foe that comes your way. If you fall, simply return to the village, where you can use your gathered materials to buy and sell items, conduct research, and unlock additional playable heroes, challenges, and quests, gradually restoring the world to its former glory.
Backpack Hero is free to keep on the Epic Games Store until Thursday July 10. Be sure to claim it while you can. You can also get the hand-drawn, musical action-adventure game Figment for free during the same period.
For more of the best free PC games, take a look through our current recommendations. If you’ve been considering a GPU upgrade to make them shine even better, we’ve picked out the best graphics cards in 2025 as well.
You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.
In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show I give a recap of the past 2 weeks of my life, which included my 5-year old son breaking his arm and all that ensued as well as taking the first step towards becoming an instructional aide in my local school district. Hooray careers! We also talk about the latest Apple scandal, which appears to be #MacMiniPowerButtonGate. We also touch on the Arcane TV show, the poor experience of going to an Apple Store, get to some listener emails which–once again–leads to a pedophile discussion, and more.
Don’t forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to [email protected]. We read ’em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below… And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated!
As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we’re talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you’re logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer.
Published: Jul 4, 2025 06:56 am