How Many Dudes? recently received a surprise update that introduces a new family of dudes and changes how players prepare for run attempts. Update 1.1 also brings a new Challenge Mode that’s supposed to be in between the major Tiers. And finally, the update adds Quality of Life improvements on top of balance changes to Upgrades to a lot of the base game families.
You can find a full list of changes on the game’s Steam page. For more information on How Many Dudes, check out our review of the game.
The highlight of this major is the addition of the Sports Dudes family. The majority of their offensive and defensive classes rely on numbers and team synergy to dominate the field. Broadcasters and Coaches round out the support and healing roles, respectively.
What makes the Sports Dudes unique is their ability to use Regular Dudes as coaches, which converts them into Assistant Coaches. This may be the first time any players may opt out of sending Regular Dudes to the Dude Ranch for training. The jury’s still out if the assistant coaches are actually helpful to the team.
Sports Dudes Family Relics
Foam Finger
Your Dudes gain 1 Hype when you do a Boss Fight or a Hard Fight. Using Dude Juice or choosing an Easy Fight subtracts 2 Hype. Each Hype grants 2% Attack Power, stacking up to 10 times.
Beer Helmet
When a Dude Blocks, he gains 2% Attack Power for 3 seconds, stacking up to 10 times.
Ibuprofen
All Roster Dudes start each battle with Temporary Health equal to 30% of their Max HP that lasts until depleted.
Creatine
When battle starts, all Dudes gain 30% Attack Power for 4 seconds. Afterwards, all Dudes gain 2% Regeneration for the rest of the battle.
Jumbotron
When an enemy is defeated, all Dudes gain 1% Attack Power for the rest of the battle, stacking up to 30 times.
Vuvuzela
All Dudes gain 5% Crit Chance. When a Dude lands a Direct Crit, there is a 10% chance for all Dudes to gain 10% Run Speed for the rest of the battle, stacking up to 20 times.
Halftime Show
Every 10 seconds, all Dudes Heal for 30% of their Max HP. Any Overhealing from this effect is converted to Temporary Health that lasts for 3 seconds.
Streakers
Every second, there is a 5% chance that a group of Streaker Dudes appears and runs around on the battlefield, applying 10% Crit Exposure, 10% Miss Chance, and 10% Vulnerability to all enemies for 3 seconds.
Sports Dudes and their Abilities
Soccer Dude
Total Football:
Soccer Dudes Pass a Ball to one another. Storing damage in the Ball with each Kick. When possible, a Soccer Dude will Shoot the Ball at an enemy to Expel its Stored Damage to finish the enemy off.
Football Dude
Blitz:
When battle starts and every 8 seconds, every Football Dude teams up with 2 random non-Football Dudes. They all gain 20% Attack Power for 3 seconds and Dash to the highest-HP enemy.
Coach Dude
Walk It Off:
Every 4 times he deals Direct Damage, the Coach Dude Equalizes the HP of the 2 highest-HP and 2 lowest-HP Roster Dudes, then grants them Temporary Health equal to 60% of his Attack Power for 4 seconds.
Tennis Dude
Volley:
The Tennis Dude Volleys a Tennis Ball at a random enemy, damaging it for 30% of his DPS. The Tennis Ball then returns to him, and he immediately Volleys again.
Basketball Dude
Dunk:
Every 7 seconds, the Basketball Dude Dunks at a random enemy’s location, damaging up to 10 enemies nearby for 400% of his DPS, splitting the damage among them.
Hockey Dude
Smack Talk:
50% of the Hockey Dude’s incoming damage is Stored and spread out over 5 seconds. When he Blocks, he has a 15% chance to Taunt 2 nearby enemies for 3 seconds and clear 10% of the Stored damage.
Broadcaster Dude
Play by Play:
When battle starts, and every 3 seconds, all Broadcaster Dudes highlight either an Offensive Play or Defensive Play, chosen at random.
Upgrades Change Up
The game’s change in how Upgrades are handled may be the most impactful change to the game. When the game first came out, progress on the Collectibles bar unlocked static upgrades depending on your performance and how you finish every run. Update 1.1 changes up everything, allowing the player to decide what’s best for their current run.
Players have to earn Dude Coins after reaching benchmarks in their Collectibles progress bars. They can then spend their coins on a bunch of items to bring at the start of the run and stat upgrades, up to 5% additional stats. The best thing about it is that you refund all your coins and reinvest them to suit another playstyle.
New Challenge Mode
With the new additions to the game, players will now be forced to go back to Tier 1 to grind out all the Sports Dudes and their Relics. The new Challenge Mode may be the answer to alleviate some of the boredom.
The most prominent change is the addition of one more boss modifier, on top of the early modifiers during the rounds. Successful runs earn the player the brand-new Platinum Coins that go a long way toward earning more Dude Coins. The change gives players a reason to re-do lower Tiers for more Platinum Coins, as well as giving the rebalanced relics a fair shake.
