BALL x PIT’s final free update just made the award-winning roguelite even harder to put down

If you’ve spent the last couple of months waiting for more BALL x PIT content, we’ve got good news: it’s finally here. Yes, as of today, August 6, you can check out the BALL x PIT Naturalist update, the last in a long line of free content offerings from developer Kenny Sun. That means new passives, characters, and balls to check out, combinations to unlock, and high scores to absolutely shatter.

For those who don’t know, BALL x PIT is a top pick from our guide to the best roguelike games, combining brick-breaker-style gameplay with city-building mechanics to offer an almost dangerously engaging experience. The base game, which is available on mobile, Steam Deck, and Nintendo Switch, got a nomination for Best Independent Game at the 2025 instalment of The Game Awards. It’s only got better since, with free updates arriving in January, April, and August.

In terms of new characters, the Naturalist update introduces two. First, there’s the Ballbearer, who forgoes passive items to double up on balls. Then, we’ve got the Hoary Hoarder, an ideal pick for testing out new evolutions with their ability to carry twice the normal amount of passives, at the cost of only saving space for two balls. Those are two very different styles of play, but there’s a lot of room for synergy by combining the Ballbearer and the Hoary Hoarder with some of the characters already in the roster.

As for balls, there are 11 fresh options to unlock and try out, with highlights including the Armageddon ball, which summons a ferocious meteor shower, and the Drill, impaling your enemies from behind. The update also introduces five new passives, such as Remote Detonator, spawning bomb balls from defeated enemies, and the Platinum
Dumbbell, which boosts the damage of your balls until they collide with the back wall.

While this might be the last of the free updates, the press release detailing the content for the Naturalist update suggests there’s more to come. That would suggest something in the way of a paid content pack, and with any luck, we won’t have long to wait to see what’s next. As someone who’s spent a lot longer than I should have playing the base game, I’ll take all the new characters and content I can get.