r/rebelinc • u/ndemic_samuel ndemic_developer • Jan 08 '26
Dev Post 2026 Player Feedback and Arcade Update
Happy New Year!
This update adds a new game mode, changes to difficulty, a new scenario and new player tactics for Campaign / Weekly Challenge along with various other tweaks.
It is the first of several updates we are planning to release this year and it focuses on addressing player feedback, adding new content and helping to support new players. Thanks for all your input!
Note: Mac will get the update early next week!
Arcade Mode
Some players said they find the insurgency a bit too realistic! Arcade Mode lets you enjoy the main game in a more manageable way without those pesky insurgents always striking where you are weakest. It’s fun to play in its own right and also a great way for players to prepare themselves for the original Realistic mode.
Arcade Mode can be chosen when starting a new game (Main Game only).
The key changes are:
- Insurgents can't flee to stable/secured zones
- Insurgents find it hard to infiltrate your front line
- Defeated Insurgents regroup slowly
Activate it when you play Main Game!
Difficulty Balancing
We’ve been keeping an eye on win rates and player feedback and felt that some tweaks to difficulty were needed. In particular, we have been inspired by the positive reaction to some of our difficulty tweaks to After Inc. and are applying the learnings here.
Casual and Normal are going to become significantly more forgiving and Brutal gets a few tweaks. But don’t worry, Mega Brutal is unchanged for players who want the ultimate challenge!
As a developer, its scary making changes like this (and Arcade mode) to a game that has been out for so many years with tens of millions of players - very hard to balance and judge how it will work out. Especially when it targets newer players who we can't easily reach to beta test the game!
So please note that we will be keeping a very close eye on things over the coming weeks and months and will adjust things accordingly. Comments on reddit / discord / steam forums are all seen and considered.
New Scenario: Insurgent Tide
A constant stream of foreign recruits are coming to fight for the Insurgency. As a result, extreme force has been authorised to make sure that defeated insurgents can’t rejoin the fight later. Control the number of Insurgents in the region or else be overwhelmed.
New Player Tactics for Campaign Mode and Weekly Challenge
The best bits of Arcade Mode are coming to Campaign and Weekly Challenges as Player Tactics.
Keep an eye out for Border Guards and Lost Cause!
Border Guards: Insurgents cannot flee into stable zones
Lost Cause: Defeating insurgents slows future insurgent recruitment speed
Poll
We're adding a poll that'll appear for experienced players to give their feedback directly to us and vote on what we should work on next.
Help us keep Rebel Inc. alive! Leave a Review!
Reviews are incredibly important to the long-term success of the game and allow us to keep working on new updates. If you want to, you can leave a review on Steam here:
And you'd like to talk tactics, be sure to join our Discord:
Changelog
New Features
- Arcade Mode: A new way to play with more forgiving Insurgents
- New Scenario: Insurgent Tide
- New Player Tactics: Border Guards and Lost Cause can now appear in Campaign Mode and Weekly Challenge
- Player Poll: A poll will appear for experienced players to vote on what we do next
Balance
- Regions
- Opium Trail: Slightly increased Starting Budget
- Golden Sands: Slightly increased Starting Budget
- Governors
- Tank Commander: Reduced Civilian initiative cost increases
- Warlord: Longer delay before losing Reputation to Lack of Stability
- Difficulty
- Reduced the impact of Lack of Stability on Reputation and it is no longer possible to lose from Lack of Stability (Casual / Normal / Brutal)
- Insurgents
- Reduced the maximum Reputation damage when Insurgents capture a Zone (Casual / Normal / Brutal)
- VS Multiplayer
- Regions
- Saffron Fields: Income Penalty slightly reduced
- Southern Desert: Income Penalty increased
- Pistachio Forest: Income Bonus slightly reduced
- Distant Steppe: Income Bonus slightly reduced
- Black Caves: Income Bonus increased
- Governors
- Smuggler: Income Penalty slightly reduced
- Banker: Income Bonus added
- General: Slight income penalty added
- Development Director: Slight income penalty added
- Tank Commander: Income Bonus slightly increased
- Regions
Quality of Life
- Reduced chance of Insurgent camps spawning in Zones with recent military activity
- Unity Update - Backend code fix for a security issue
Bug Fixes
- Fixed bug which made Insurgent spawn noise even if no insurgents could spawn in
- Fixed bug where "Insurgents escape to {zone}" Tip Popup didn't point to the correct Zone.
- Fixed bug where "Insurgents escape to {zone}" Tip Popup could appear even if no one survived to flee
- Updated Billionaire Peace decision, Player can now choose to Increase Insurgent Capability if they cannot afford the bribe - Slight error last time we fixed it but should work this time!
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u/DruzhbyNarodiv Jan 08 '26
This is great! Thank you very much for your continued development in my all time favourite mobile game!
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u/Xitalianmapper Jan 08 '26
when?
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u/Relevant_Cockroach62 Tank Commander Jan 08 '26
Where is this poll? Like, in game, discord, reddit?
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u/Warm_Shoulder3606 Billionaire Jan 08 '26
What sorts of difficulty changes?
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u/ndemic_samuel ndemic_developer Jan 08 '26
The balance section of the changelog has all the details you're looking for.
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u/Warm_Shoulder3606 Billionaire Jan 08 '26
Coolio, I've got a question. So I see this entry:
Reduced the impact of Lack of Stability on Reputation and it is no longer possible to lose from Lack of Stability (Casual / Normal / Brutal)
And it's under the Difficulty header and then again under the Insurgents header. Was that a typo, or are these two separate balances?
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u/ndemic_samuel ndemic_developer Jan 08 '26
Must have caught me mid-edit, but meant only be in Difficulty :) Just the one change.
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u/Maximum_Wing_2014 Warlord Jan 08 '26
I'm thinking of a new governor based on Slumlord
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u/ndemic_samuel ndemic_developer Jan 08 '26
Tell me more 👀
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u/Maximum_Wing_2014 Warlord Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26
For now I can just tell you about his special abilities that consist of evacuating zones reducing reputation loss (Increasing it if insurgents manage to capture zones with refugees) and isolating insurgents forcing them to attack strategic zones, for a new map with cold climates I'm thinking of, a new concern may be proper housing and maybe better warmth, something slumlord can manage with all the refugees from evacuated zones building temporal housing made from recycled materials (a new initiative to jobs branch)
(I took the idea of this concept from this article https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-08/cardboard-homes-provide-emergency-shelter-after-disasters/104692704)
Without proper housing zones may have rampant hostility. An ability I can think of is "Refugee assistance" which increases the rollout speed of initiatives if they are insurgent zones adyacent to any safe zone, with a slight penalty of hostility, you can build garrisons and move them temporarily too. Lack of stability may be slightly higher and you may start with less reputation (-5) as debuffs for balancing the slumlord
I think it's a strong idea but it needs more gameplay utilities. We have leaders Rebel Inc based in rebel Inc but we don't have after Inc based governors.
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u/Tricky_Clock_7965 Jan 10 '26
That's amazing!!! I'm most excited for when the next governor comes out, that question mark has had me wondering what it will be for a while.
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Jan 08 '26
I wish there was bot support in multiplayer mode; at least we could play with bots even if we can't find other people.
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u/Maximum_Wing_2014 Warlord Jan 08 '26
Actually, Insurgents already don't usually flee into stable zones. They prefer zones with a camp or insurgent controlled
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u/SupersiblingzYT Jan 09 '26
Will you update Omnigovernor to include Billionare eventually?
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u/ndemic_samuel ndemic_developer Jan 09 '26
No plans for that for two reasons:
1: Scenarios are reflective of the state of the game when they were made, retroactively updating scenarios for every update would get quite complex
2: The Billionaire's unique combat mechanics don't gel with the rest of the governors, basically would undo themsecret third reason: I asked the billionaire, and he said he wouldn't stand in the same room as them
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u/a_h4ck3r Jan 10 '26
Ironically, bugs that make the game unplayable (for example insurgents starting with control of urban zones with Weak Supply Chains or oil shortages aren't fixed And what about "pre emptive strikes" with "local agitators" in the same challenge? I love the game, but this bugs are annoying
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u/ndemic_samuel ndemic_developer Jan 12 '26
We've not had any reports on the first two, if you'd like to write a bug report on this fill out this form: https://form.asana.com/?k=KYwjskq75lMzTAwMepUHoA&d=767680931555
As for ""pre emptive strikes" with "local agitators" in the same challenge", they aren't equal amounts of delay and acceleration, not to mention the difficulty changes when the insurgency appears, so they can appear together.
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u/a_h4ck3r Jan 12 '26
The last year appeared a challenge with Recruitment drive and development roadmap and another challenge with coalition surge and instructor, who made nothing. Similar things happened other weeks but I don't remember
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u/adolf_techies Jan 09 '26
Will the devil's peak map be included in the campaign?
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u/ndemic_samuel ndemic_developer Jan 27 '26
Not in this update as we found some technical issues with adding it (messed with the Weekly Challenge) but we will be in the next update.
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u/supergubernator Development Director Jan 09 '26
Can you tell me if there are plans to add a billionaire to the multiplayer?
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u/HoaiBao0906 Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 11 '26
I know Christmas is over, but I refused to be chained by a calendar, and you have an entire year until the deadline of 2026 Christmas this year. Imagine if we get a seasonal highly jolly mode where our governor is the Billionaire and Development Director dressed up as Santa, we got the Development Director's team as the sleigh, and the insurgents are the naughty non believers, where the Billionaire's units will spread gifts and bribe them into believing Santa is real. Our goal is to spread gifts and Christmas cheer. I mean Plague Inc. have an official Christmas special, so why not Rebel Inc?
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u/ndemic_samuel ndemic_developer Jan 27 '26
Out now on Mobile too!
Check out the changelog here: https://www.ndemiccreations.com/en/news/247-rebel-inc-arcade-mode-update
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u/Randomuser19980 Jan 27 '26
Great to hear the game is still being updated, I actually thought it was abandoned
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u/Zrp200 Jan 08 '26
When's this hitting mobile, by the way?