Ball x Pit wrapped up its year of free content today with The Naturalist Update, the final free content drop for the brick-breaking roguelite, but Devolver Digital and developer Kenny Sun snuck in the bigger story into the bottom of the announcement. The adventure is not over, with big, exciting news promised in the very near future. No details exist beyond that, but a final free update paired with that kind of tease sure sounds like paid DLC or a full expansion is in the works.
The update arrives alongside a fresh sales milestone, with Ball x Pit officially passing two million copies sold across platforms since its 2025 debut, which earned a nomination at The Game Awards. That doubles the one million copies it celebrated back in December, the same announcement that laid out the three-update roadmap now complete after January’s Regal Update and April’s Shadow Update.
As for the content itself, the Naturalist Update introduces two unlockable characters built around opposite extremes. The Ballbearer doubles your Ball slots but gives up passive items entirely, going all-in on raw firepower. The Hoary Hoarder flips that approach, hauling an oversized backpack with room for only two Ball slots but twice as many passive slots, letting powerful item Evolutions do the heavy lifting.
The update also throws in 11 new balls, headlined by the Lightning Bug, which spawns a firefly with every bounce that seeks out the strongest enemy and zaps nearby targets with a burst of lightning. The Drill pierces enemies from behind for extra damage, while Armageddon calls down a meteor shower the moment it connects. On the passive side, five new options include the Platinum Dumbbell, which boosts a ball’s damage until it touches the back wall, the Inglorious Hammer, which makes balls that hit a wall immediately strike a random enemy for reduced damage, and the Remote Detonator, which turns downed enemies into explosive Bomb Ball spawners. You can see it all in action in the update’s launch trailer.
Ball x Pit was one of our favorite games of 2025, and in my review, I called it the kind of game that makes you wonder how it took this long to be made. The Naturalist Update is available now on PlayStation, XBOX, Switch, Switch 2, mobile, and PC. Whatever the big news turns out to be, I’m not exactly upset about spending more time in the pit.
