Rain-drenched lightning level and more coming to VR shooter Raw Data today

Virtual reality shooter Raw Data gets a major update today which includes a new hero, missions, weapons and abilities.

One of the new missions puts players on the roof of Eden Tower in a heavy rain as they fight waves of enemies over the Skyport. Lightning strikes can hurt the player, take down defenses and charge up enemies. The other new mission is designed to force players to avoid using the game's teleshift as they dodge lasers while fighting back the game's enemies.

The update, the largest to date, will be the latest monthly update to hit the Vive HTC game which is still in Early Access on Steam, said Mike McTyre, design director at developer Survios.

"We've released an update once a month, that's the cadence we're trying to shoot for," he said. "They updates add new content, improve the game and include fixes.

"This one was a bit longer, we focused more on stability and performance improvement."

McTyre said the team is always striving to balance the desire to add new content to the game with the need to work on improvements that help stabilize the title.

The update comes as Survios says that Raw Data topped $1 million in sales on Steam. McTyre said that he didn't know the breakdown of the sales or whether the game is now profitable, but he did say that the game doesn't appear to have plateaued.

"We're definitely seeing continued sales," he said. "The first week was really high but then it leveled off. Every time we release new content it absolutely spikes."

And the team still has quite a lot of promised content coming.

"We only have sent out of ten missions, there's lots of narrative coming, the intro and ending," he said. "We still have loads more content to introduce."

He said that it also helps that hardware continues to sell.

While Raw Data is an HTC Vive exclusive, McTyre said the team has been discussing the coming of the Oculus Touch controllers and whether they may bring the game over to the Rift as well.

"We're very interested in other platforms as well," he said. "We're very excited about the release of the PlayStation VR. We can't wait to get our hands on the hardware and play with the products and games.

"We have high hopes that it will be another fantastic platform."

Here's the full rundown of today's Raw Data update:

● New Mission – Thundershock

o As an immersive electrical storm surges over the Skyport, act fast to stay alive while disposing of lightning-charged enemies.

o This is the newest phase on the Skyport map, featuring heavy rain and visually stunning lightning. Lightning strikes will hurt the player and disable defenses (necessitating repair by the player), but will buff up adversaires.

● New Mission – Extermination

o The Robotics Lab's advanced--and dangerous -- security system will put your dexterity to the test as players strategic abilities must come into play.

o Duck, dodge, twist and teleshift around laser patterns while trying to stay alive to avoid the deadly grids.

● New Hero – Boss The Street Merc

o A disciple of the hard streets of Neo-Shinjuku, Boss will blast robots to bits with his trusty shotgun, or bash the situation to a pulp with an iron fist.

● New Weapon – Dominator Shotgun

o Proximity Reload

▪ Automatically reload your shotgun just by touching to your back, getting you back in the fray even faster.

o Nade Launcher

▪ Pull the alternate trigger to launch up to three plasma grenades, completely obliterating enemies in your path.

o Air Juggle

▪ Hold back the the pump to charge a flak blast, then push forward and fire to pop enemies up in the air for extra punishment

● New Special Abilities - Air Juggle, Grenade Launcher and more

o Boss can charge up his shotgun and pop a group of enemies into the air, which then allows himself or other heroes to "juggle" them by shooting or damaging them.

● Defense Update - Plasma Turret (New Model)

o New art for the deployable Plasma Turret distinguishes it from other defenses.

● New Defense - Shield Station

o Feeling a bit exposed? Deploy the dome shaped holographic Shield Station for instant cover when the you-know-what hits the fan.

o The Shield Station is the first non-turret deployable defense: a static barricade that provides cover behind which players can crouch.

● New Enemy Type - Teleporting Ninja Bot

o Now that Eden's infamous stealthing robot has received the Teleshift hardware upgrade, you'll have to move faster than ever to take it down.

o This updated version of the stealthing enemy robot features the innovatice Teleshifting mechanic available to players, making it extremely fast and difficult to hit.

● MP Leaderboards

o Co-op teams can now compete for the top spot on each level.