"We need to make sure that it feels like a very valuable use of their time": Jonathan Rowlands talks about the aspects of the Squad Busters 2.0 update

The Squad Busters 2.0 update is arriving on May 13, 2025, bringing a lot of changes to the title's gameplay. By now, the community knows about the arrival of the new Hero characters, their skills and passive traits, and other such aspects that have caused a lot of hype. However, many long-term players are also worried about how the changes might affect the overall game balance.

We had a chance to chat with Squad Busters Head Jonathan Rownalds, where we asked him about the upcoming changes and how they could affect the gameplay.

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Jonathan Rowlands shares his opinion about the community's concerns about the Squad Busters 2.0 update, and more

Q. How will the introduction of Heroes and their unique abilities affect overall game balance, especially for new versus veteran players?

Jonathan Rowlands: Yeah, I think it's definitely something we've considered in terms of the balancing. We put a lot of time and effort into balancing it as a team. We know that it won't launch with perfect balancing, and that's fine. I think that's even the fun of things sometimes, where we can listen to the players and they get to sort of find these optimal strategies, and then we'll adjust if needed. So, definitely expect that it won't be perfect out of the gate, but we're pretty happy with where we're launching it from.

In terms of the different experiences as a new player, there is actually a revamped and a new tutorial which will take players through it, and the game unravels over time. So we think there's a really nice onboarding for players there, where you don't get all of the heroes instantly. You don't get all of the squadies instantly. And there's some really nice progression within that where you do get the powers and then you get to experiment with them and play with them in a small, contained sort of set, and then you expand over time. For existing players who are probably a bit more progressed, they are going to have a bunch of new stuff to experiment with.

I think ultimately it's for them to, and I think this is what they've been asking for, you know, from the feedback, they've wanted more agency so you know, just trying out the powers that you like and naturally you're going to find some which you instantly sort of connect with and your different play styles. And I think that's an advantage of what we're releasing here.

It is actually quite different depending on which hero, powers, and qualities you take in. And the game has a lot more variety and feels quite different because of that. So yeah, I think for existing players, there's a lot for them to get stuck into. And I think they're going to have fun.

For some people, it's quite a lot, but I think, you know, you just have to pick a random hero and two pals and get going and then sort of learn from there.

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Q. Will evolving Heroes or Squaddies become too dependent on spending, rather than skill or playtime?

Jonathan: Yeah, we, you know, at Supercell, we always look at our progression throughout the game. We always want to make sure that all players can experience the game and progress, and feel like we value their time. And I think that's really how we look at it, that we really want games that players play for years and remember forever. And to do that, we need to make sure that it feels like a very valuable use of their time. If they choose to spend, we always take that as the greatest compliment. We think that's the greatest form of engagement.

But if we know that some people don't, and as long as they're playing the game and enjoying themselves and feel like it's been a great use of their time, then we're also really happy as well. So I have no fear of that becoming an issue at all. We always look very closely at that and balance it such that everyone can enjoy it.

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Q. What specific steps are being taken to address community concerns about the removal of certain modifiers and the rebalancing of units?

Jonathan: Yeah, I've seen some of the anguish from the community. We're moving some things, and we never like to remove things, so we can't talk here about any future plans to address things that we've removed. What I can say is we've removed these things for the right reasons.

With such a big change to the game as this, you know, I think it is the biggest change to a game of this scale, certainly from Supercell and possibly ever in terms of changing so much of the fundamentals.

There was always going to be a few compromises, and we don't want to remove things, but we felt, ultimately, the quality of the game and the quality of the experience is what we focus on. And we needed to because they didn't hit our quality bar, and we have a very high bar at Supercell.

And keeping those in, we could have kept them in, but it just wouldn't have hit the level we wanted to. So we definitely would like to look at whether we can bring them back if we find a way to do so with our quality bar.

So that's what I'd say. We never want to remove things, but that's what we want to do.

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Arrived on May 28, 2025, Squad Busters initially attracted a lot of players. However, fans grew bored with the somewhat repetitive gameplay. Hence, the developer designed the Squad Busters 2.0 update, which will bring certain changes to appeal to a broader target audience. The Squad Busters 2.0 update is set to launch on May 13, 2025, at 2:00 pm EEST (UTC +3).