Mach-X 1.4.3 release notes

A 23-point review of the whole game produced this release.

Gameplay & balance

Escort and objective attackers now spawn away from your plane, and boats are moved onto water.
Mini-bosses arrive at the half-way point of a wave, formations are skipped when they would clamp to the wall, and elites come only from mobile flyers.
Far static ground units despawn, and missed objectives now show MISSED.
Portals pick their own world, and no hideout portal appears in boss waves or raids.
The last boss down ends the wave within 2.5 seconds, for a shorter boss-wave tail.
Banning a level-up card no longer bans the weapon.
Evolution items are three times as likely from level 6, the frailty curse never hits planes with under 4 HP, class items need a weapon of that class, and idle crate drops only appear when you are hurt.
Wave 1 opens with a formation.

Explosions: no more flak-ball blast sprite, a richer nuke, and no stacked craters or scorch marks.
A thin light rim and busy-ground ring keep your own plane readable.
Wrecks vary more: water splashes or dust depending on the ground, burning spirals and pilot parachutes.
Boss intros lean the camera in (off with reduced motion).
Damage numbers are sized by HP share, with a kill pop.
Audio ducking is never cut short, big blasts are no longer dropped, voices duck sound effects and the shield has its own cue.
Distinct CRATE TRAP, ELITE AMBUSH and DECOY FLARE banners.

HUD declutter: objective lines stack under the modifier chip, the modifier card is shorter and shrinks into its chip, and off-screen edge arrows merge with a count.
The HUD and nuke button hide behind the level-up, chest and shop screens.
Coach tips sit above the TAKE OFF bar.
The HUD respects side safe areas and cutouts.
Menu text has an 11 px minimum, and the joystick has an outline.
The level-up screen is compact up to 820 px wide, and the shop shows two columns in short landscape (from 760 px wide).
The boss banner subline fits its lane, and the low-HP radio bark is no longer swallowed.
The Achievements drawer, the World cleared screen and the Helicopters and boss-family entries are clearer.
The Quartermaster text is honest about what it does.

The quality governor now measures your display's refresh interval, so a 60 or 90 Hz screen on maximum frame rate no longer sinks to the lowest resolution for good. It ramps faster, and boss mood goes light as soon as it steps down.
Boss mood is cheaper to draw, and the arena edge is drawn only when in view.

Resume: a Strike Run end screen, a mid-wave boss checkpoint and clean-wave contracts resume correctly, and plane stats are recomputed after resume.
An error in one game hook no longer freezes the run.
A one-time "Save failed" notice appears if saving fails.
The game pauses when you switch apps, the Play Games check at launch is silent, and you press Back twice to exit.
Co-op: a guest keeps their bonus after an error drop, the host has a resume grace period, and the lobby times out.
Payments: a failed billing start retries when the Support panel opens, products that do not load show Unavailable, errors are honest and no purchase reward is lost.
Erasing progress keeps your Supporter reward.
The shield ripple works again, and explosion embers render again.
Gunboats respect the coast and objectives stay dry.
Co-op sound effects relayed by the host are throttled per name.
Save versioning and migrations now protect old saves, and visual effects no longer change seeded daily and Even Footing runs.
Leaderboard errors are handled gracefully.