Ultrakill Cyber Grind players just got 3 sneaky updates that change high waves

Ultrakill has quietly rolled out a string of April hotfixes, and together they hit Cyber Grind, magnets, and high wave spawns way harder than the short patch notes suggest. If you live in Cyber Grind, chase insanely high waves, or like breaking magnets with sawblades, these changes affect your runs right now.

Ultrakill: April Hotfix Tracker

The game now hard caps some of the most broken magnet tech, changes how fodder and elites spawn, and even adds a visual for the death plane so you can see where your run actually ends. On top of that, mirror reapers, Providences, and Virtues behave differently in Cyber Grind, which means different pressure patterns when you hit later waves.

This breakdown walks through every important change from Fraud Hotfix 2 through patches 17d, 17d2, 17d3, and 17d4, with a focus on what actually changes your Cyber Grind routes, loadouts, and consistency. You will also see who benefits from the nerfs and fixes, and what to adjust first if you are climbing leaderboards or just trying to survive late waves.

Every Ultrakill hotfix that matters for Cyber Grind

Over April, Ultrakill got one main patch, Fraud Hotfix 2, and three follow up hotfixes: 17d, 17d2, and 17d3, then the fresh 17d4 update. All of them are officially “small”, but almost every note hits something that Cyber Grind grinders care about.

Here is the short version of what changed:

• Cyber Grind optimization improved, which cuts down hitches and stutters in long runs on non portal stages and on the Cyber Grind itself.

• Mirror Reaper and other rare spawns were reined in and then tuned again, reducing soft locks and unfair wave spikes.

• Fodder density is more consistent, so you are less likely to get cursed “all elite” waves with no healing or easy style.

• Magnet sawblade tech now has a hard time limit and stricter stacking rules, killing some of the most absurd one shot setups.

• The Cyber Grind death plane now has a proximity visual, so you get a clear line on where your run instantly ends.

For ranked style chasers, this all adds up to a smoother, more predictable arena with fewer broken interactions you could lean on to cheese waves. It is still Ultrakill, so it remains brutal, but it is less likely to collapse because of a bug or an untested interaction.

Cyber Grind spawn rules just got safer and scarier at the same time

Fraud Hotfix 2 and 17d packed multiple changes into how Cyber Grind waves are built, and that hits your runs from wave 1 all the way to your PB.

Key changes to wave logic and spawns:

• Deathcatcher cages and the 75 percent rule: Deathcatchers and certain rare spawns no longer count toward the 75 percent enemy kill requirement that opens cages. This removes a rare but awful soft lock where a cage would never open because the game was waiting on an enemy that had not spawned yet.

• Fodder guarantee: Each wave must now contain a chunk of “common” enemies like Filth, Strays, and Soldiers instead of being allowed to spend the whole budget on elites. This means fewer waves that are just Virtues, Cerberi, and Swordsmachines with zero breathing room.

• Uncommon enemy budget: Uncommon spawns now only use up to half the total point count of a wave, so the game cannot blow the entire budget on weird outliers and leave you starved for health and style.

• Mirror Reaper tuning: Mirror Reaper spawns in Cyber Grind were adjusted across these patches so you see fewer absurd spike waves and better pacing around that fight.

For grinders, these tweaks affect your run in two major ways. First, wave pacing is more reliable, since you know there will be some fodder for healing and style instead of back to back elite floods. Second, once you hit high waves, the threats are more about pure skill check rather than bugs or soft locks caused by how the wave was set up.

Magnet sawblades and chainsaw stacking got hard nerfed

One of the most abusable pieces of tech out of Fraud involved punching sawblades or the Unchained chainsaw inside magnets to stack huge damage, then using that to melt chunky targets. Hotfix 17d4 went directly after that.

Here is what changed with magnets and blades:

• Punching sawblades or detached chainsaws inside magnets still doubles their damage, but the buff now expires 3 seconds after the punch.

• Detached chainsaw “weight” on magnets went from 3 to 5, while a regular sawblade is 1, which cuts how many chainsaws a single magnet can support.

Before this nerf, you could stack a cloud of blades into a magnet, punch them repeatedly, and turn that into absurd burst damage that trivialised some Cyber Grind situations and chunky bosses. Now you have to do your setup and connect your hits inside a much tighter window, with fewer chainsaws in the cluster.

For high wave runners, this pushes you back toward clean fundamentals instead of relying on extreme magnet cheese. It does not kill magnets as a tool, but it cuts off the most degenerate setups that could one shot or wipe phases without much risk once you knew the tech.

If you were already playing more honest routes, this nerf barely touches you. If your PB route was built around stacked chainsaws, you will need a new plan.

Cyber Grind death plane now tells you where your run ends

Patch 17d3 might have the single most quality of life Cyber Grind change in the whole batch, and it barely takes one line in the notes.

• The Cyber Grind death plane now has a proximity based visual, so you can see how close you are to instantly dying as you dip or fall.

That glowing visual under the arena is more than just a cool effect. It gives you a clear read on how much space you have for risky slides, wall bounces, or recovery dashes after a bad hit.

If you like to play right on the edge of the map, this change lets you squeeze more value out of the vertical space without guessing where the kill line sits. On weaker hardware, where depth perception is rougher and frame drops make movement less precise, this can be the difference between a saved run and a random death that feels unfair.

Providence, Virtues, and other enemies got AI and bug fixes

The April patches also tackled how some of Ultrakill’s nastiest enemies behave, especially when they overlap in Cyber Grind.

Highlights that matter for arena players:

• Providence and Virtue cooldown split: Providence now uses a separate global cooldown from Virtues, which means they can attack at the same time instead of one cancelling the other by accident. Before this, you sometimes got unintentionally “safer” windows because their logic stepped on itself.

• Active Providence cap adjustment: An earlier change tried to limit the number of active Providences to keep Virtues firing properly, but hotfixes kept tuning this so both groups behave as intended.

• Strays and Soldiers aim properly: their AI now predicts your movement and shoots where you are going, not just where you are. That sounds minor, but it makes lazy dodging and straight line bunny hopping less safe.

• Gutter Man line of sight fix: Rockets no longer block its line of sight, so you cannot cheese it as easily by freezing projectiles in front of it.

• Maurice targeting cleanup: Malicious Faces got several small fixes, such as not spamming errors when moved with spawner arms and better handling of odd situations, which results in fewer goofy interactions in arena and custom play.

The net result is that Cyber Grind waves built out of these enemies now work more consistently with the intended difficulty, instead of giving you random free passes because two systems cancelled each other out. You feel the difference most on waves where Providence, Virtues, and other strong threats overlap, since the pattern of projectiles and beams is more relentless.

Level and visual fixes that quietly improve runs

While most of the patch talk is about spawns and magnets, the April updates also fixed level jank that could break flow or hide enemies.

Notable fixes:

• Improved optimization on non portal levels and Cyber Grind, making big fights and long arena runs smoother and less hitchy.

• Fixed broken navmesh in 5 1’s cave that caused Soldiers to spawn inside a wall. That kind of bug can ruin pacing or leave you hunting for the last mob.

• Fixed a secret room in 8 1 that stopped working correctly, which matters if you are hunting every secret route or achievement.

• Cleaned up some portal and ceiling rendering issues in late game levels, so weird angles no longer reveal empty spaces or glitchy geometry.

These do not change your DPS or routes directly, but they make the game feel less brittle. For players who are deep into replays and high difficulty challenge runs, fewer broken secrets and bugged navmesh cases means you can focus on grinding skill instead of fighting bugs.

What Cyber Grind grinders should change right now

If you are pushing Cyber Grind in Ultrakill after these hotfixes, you do not need to rebuild your entire playstyle, but a few adjustments will help.

For magnet and blade enjoyers:

• Stop planning routes around infinitely stacking chainsaws. The 3 second timer means your damage window is tight, so practice getting into position early and punching just before the cluster connects.

• Treat magnets as setup tools for controlled burst and crowd control instead of the backbone of your whole run.

High wave runners:

• Take advantage of the more consistent fodder spawns by building patterns around quick Filth and Soldier kills for health and style.

• Expect tougher overlap from Providence and Virtues, since they now pressure you at the same time rather than politely taking turns.

Players on weaker PCs:

• Enjoy the improved optimization in Cyber Grind, and pay attention to the new death plane visual so you can play closer to the edge of the arena without guessing.