Hello inmates,

You might've heard that we're allowing Darwin Project players to check out an upcoming feature early as part of a technical playtest. Originally scheduled a couple weeks ago, the Tile Mapping system playtest was postponed due to a technical issue. After some more tweaking, we're ready to give you a first look at the Tile Mapping system and a brand new Electronic Power: the Ice Bolt!

Don't forget that these systems are works-in-progress, so you may experience small issues during the Playtest.


The Tile Mapping system will keep the Darwin Project arena fresh by pulling tiles (or zones) from a bank and assembling them in various configurations to create a map that will be different in each match. Without the possibility of relying on a map whose layout they've memorized, inmates will have to stay on their toes as they discover and adapt to the arena they're fighting in.


The Ice Bolt is a new Electronic Power that contestants can craft and use after looting an Electronic. Unleash the Ice Bolt at an opponent to temporarily freeze them in place and cause their cold meter to deplete, gaining you some time to think about your next move. The Ice Bolt must be slotted into your Crafting Wheel like other Electronic Powers, so don't forget to make a spot for it by going to your Crafting Wheel from the main menu or the lobby to use it in this Playtest!

Here’s a sneak peek! Keep in mind that it’ll look even cooler when it’s finished:




The Technical Playtest will take place Friday, July 13 from 4 PM EDT / 8 PM UTC to 6 PM EDT / 10 PM UTC.


1. Go to your Steam library

2. Right-click on Darwin Project and select Properties

3. Go to the Beta tab and enter the playtest code: playtest73423482

4. Select Playtest from the drop-down menu

5. Restart Steam and launch Darwin Project

Important: Don't forget to opt out of the playtest branch once it is over! You can do this by going back to the Beta tab in the game's Properties and selecting None from the drop-down menu.


Yes! Don't forget to opt out of the Playtest when you are done playing before continuing to stream Darwin Project.


We'd love to hear your feedback about the Tile Mapping system and Ice Bolt Power! Please fill out the survey below to tell us what you thought. It should only take about 8 minutes of your time!

Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NXSD3HV (cannot be completed before July 13 at 4 PM EDT)


The Tile Mapping system and the Ice Bolt will be added in the next patch, along with more content! We'll review your feedback and announce when that next patch is as soon as we can.

Want more information about other features we have in the works? Watch the Behind the Scenes: Summer Roadmap video!

See you in the arena!

Here are the top ranking Steam inmates this week! If you see your username here, sign up https://www.toornament.com/tournaments/1553452356835622912/information to join the Darwin Project Top 100 Showdown this Saturday, June 23, at 2PM EDT!

EDIT: The event is now over. Thanks to everyone who participated, and congratulations to those of you who earned a Silver or Gold Champion set!

Hello Inmates!

We hope you are enjoying E3 and all the new games coming. On our side, for this week's update, we are going international! Localization is coming, along with World Cup skins for all players enjoying the soccer spirit within the next month. We also found lately that there have been fewer Show Directors in the arena. The rating system felt too harsh for newcomers and didn't fulfill its true purpose, so we completely reworked it into a Prestige System.

As planned in the summer roadmap , these days we are having a blast working hard on the
Tile Mapping System . You’ll be able to have a first look at the technical system we designed, mixing up the tiles each match, and give us a feedback for this week’s Playtest on Friday, June 15th, from 4 to 6 PM EDT.  




Being a Show Director has always been a key part of the innovation of Darwin Project. The feature is designed to be fun, playful, and add flavour to the show. Following your feedback, we observed that the Star Rating System was too punitive.

At first, we introduced the Show Director with no control measures. The idea was to see how players would behave with all those powers. It created really impressive moments and a great show. On the other hand, it also resulted in players becoming abusive.

Then we added the Star Rating System, the main purpose of which was to block Show Directors with bad behaviour. The problem was that this system was not only used as a restriction mechanic but also as a rating mechanic with many Show Directors competing in the leaderboard based on this. This resulted in the opposite behaviour compared to the first version. Since Show Director ratings were entirely dependent on the inmates, they were less free to play as they wished. The fear of getting a bad rating was too strong. This, combined with the fact that some players would compulsively rate Show Directors 1-star as a relief for their recent loss, became a problem we needed to address.

To fix this, we decided to split up the 2 components included in the Star Rating. The restriction mechanic is now linked with the Player Report system, so if a Show Director is reported too much they will lose their access.

In this new version of the rating aspect of the Show Director, we replaced the quantitative system with a qualitative one. Instead of rating the Show Director from 1 to 5 stars, players can reward them with Prestige at the end of each match by choosing one of the archetypes from the Prestige system. The goal of these archetypes is to reward Show Directors and give them inspiration as they develop their own style. Our aim is for our beloved masters of ceremonies to have the freedom to create more flavourful and meaningful interactions with the inmates.

Each Prestige received will grant the Show Director a fan bonus.

So far, we have 4 Prestige categories:

The Storyteller – An immersive roleplaying style, added a layer of pathology and story. Who’s the villain? Who’s the hero? Who’s the underdog? Storytelling style could take the player’s personalities and build excitement out of it.

The Wild Card – Shook things up with absurd challenges and humour. A Wild Card style will keep players on their toes with unexpected commands.

The Sportscaster – Insightful play by play made you feel like a star on a live broadcast. Sportscasting style may heighten the action by serving as the vocal conductor.

The Puppet Master – Pitted players against one another in games of intrigue. This is the true All Seeing Eye of the arena. But are they on your side?



Each of these categories has its own leaderboard and the there is also a one for total Prestige received. All will be reset every 2 weeks like the official rating so Show Directors have to consistently deliver a good show if they want to stay at the top. The top 3 Show Directors of the total Prestige leaderboard will be invited to show direct our Top 100 Showdown events.

We also added a leaderboard for the total number of games directed.

Last but not least, we reduced the level requirement to unlock access to Show Director mode from level 10 to 5. The objective is to increase the general fun factor by having more matches be played with Show Directors.


As you may know, we have many international developers at Scavengers and all non-Americans LOVE soccer! Our guys are psyched to announce that for a limited time, Darwin Project inmates can obtain World Cup soccer-themed sportswear by opening Fan Gifts or purchasing them with Ramen in the Item Shop. Show your support for your favourite team or mix and match the new items with your go-to pieces for fresh, workout-ready styles. The items will only be available during the FIFA WORLD CUP month from June 14 to July 12 on Steam. Each day, the shop will be supplied with the country that is playing.

As you may know, we have many international developers at Scavengers and all non-Americans LOVE soccer! Our guys are psyched to announce that for a limited time, Darwin Project inmates can obtain World Cup soccer-themed sportswear by opening Fan Gifts or purchasing them with Ramen in the Item Shop. Show your support for your favourite team or mix and match the new items with your go-to pieces for fresh, workout-ready styles. The items will only be available during the NON-AMERICAN WORLD CUP month from June 14 to July 12 on Steam. Each day, the shop will be supplied with the country that is playing.

The skin sets that would be available are the following. These were chosen based on the teams competing in the event, the Darwin Project playerbase, and our available localization languages.

• Mother Russia
  
• Saudade Portugal
  
• Vive La France
  
• Canaray Brazil
  
• Romantic Germany
  
• Tally-ho England

Also for the duration of the event we added the flag of your country in the show director UI so the public can support their fellow compatriots.


Starting Thursday on Steam, you’ll be able to play Darwin Project in 8 new languages! Keep in mind that this is the very beginning of our localization efforts, and you may find some English text within the new available languages. You’ll be able to change the language in the Options menu. The languages that will be available are:

• Français
  
• Deutsch
  
• Español
  
• Italiano
  
• Polski
  
• Pусский
  
• 日本語
  
• 한국어

Coming soon

• Português brasileiro
  
• ไทย
  
• Türkçe

• Traps (bear trap, tripwire, cage) only give a clue to the player who set them.
  
• Arcade damage text is now only visible for the one that deals the damage.

Developer Comments: These changes will reduce the amount of information players receive about fights which they are not involved in.

• Power Leap cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds.
  
• In Duo Mode, Drones can no longer activate cabin Holomaps.
  
• Players can now rebind the key to harvest Clue as a drone in Duo Mode.

• Updated Player status Icons. We used to have a circular player status icon. The player status icon is your player Steam Icon. By changing the Steam Icon into a square shape, we keep all the information from the Steam Icon. A square icon allows more visibility of your image, name, and information on the player. It also allows us to include the stamina information of each player.
  
• Added an indicator for the Show Director to know if it is a Solo or Duo lobby in the top right corner of the screen

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Show Director power deck to not be saved.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused players to get credit for killing their ally in Duo mode.
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the announcer voice to be affected by a weird filter.

Hello inmates,

We’ve got another patch focused on gameplay tweaks and bug fixes coming up Thursday, June 7. Expect maintenance from 11 AM EDT to 12 PM EDT. And if you’re hungry for fresh content, don’t worry―meatier updates are coming soon!

See you in the arena!






You can purchase these items as a 5-piece weekly set that includes the Helmet, Shirt, Armor, Pants, and Boots starting Thursday, June 7 at 12:00 PM EDT. You want the King Cold Shoulder set if you play as the male character, and the Icebreaker Prime set if you play as the female character.

Keep an eye out for the Frozen Skull Bow (not pictured) and Frozen Trap Axe weapons in the daily section of the Shop throughout the week and beyond.

• Decreased Tripwire stun duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds
  
• Made enemy Traps more difficult to spot when sprinting, and barely visible when running - Note: This does not undo the change made in patch 1.11.1 causing enemy Trap visibility to be determined by player movement state (standing, running, or sprinting). This tweak slightly reduces Trap opacity following community feedback reporting Traps having become too easy to see in most situations and thus less viable in combat.
  
• After one minute spent in a forbidden zone, the cold meter will decrease at a faster rate
  
• Taking damage from a Turret will now cancel any Trap the player is caught in
  
• Reduced cost of Telepathy and Electro-mania Show Director Powers from 5 to 3 Action Points
  
• The very end of the Axe swing animation will no longer block incoming Axe hits
  
• Added a toggle for blood in the Options

• Added sound effects for equipping and unequipping Show Director Powers
  
• Updated sound effect for opening a Fan Gift
  
• Updated sound effect for purchasing Ramen
  
• Updated sound effect for exchanging Ramen for an item
  
• Updated sound effect for purchasing an item pack

• Added missing detail to the Samoan Smasher Armor
  
• Fixed an issue that would remove the highlight from players under Blood Moon if they were hit by a Hunter Arrow, got caught in a Trap, or tracked as a result of an opponent’s Revenge Cloak
  
• Fixed an issue with the Show Director level progress bar not correctly computing Fans received and Fans needed for the next level
  
• Fixed an issue where new Show Director Powers would only become available after playing another game
  
• Fixed an issue that would prevent the center zone Electronic from activating in Duo Mode, even when Electro-mania was used
  
• Fixed an issue that would cancel the Arrow nocking animation when landing from an Axe jump attack
  
• Fixed an issue where the Manhunt would be interrupted if the number of players fell below 4 after it was used

Hello inmates,

This latest patch is a bit smaller and focuses on polish and bug fixing. A special thank you to our tight-knit community of highly experienced players for sharing their concerns about the mechanics that we decided to tweak in this update. Patch 1.11.1 is coming to Steam Tuesday, May 29, and you can expect maintenance to begin at our usual time: 11:00 AM EDT / 3:00 PM UTC. UPDATE: We're now aiming to begin the maintenance at 1:00 PM EDT / 5:00 PM UTC on May 29.

See you in the arena!






Dead Survivalist (male character) and Cheerful Forest Murderer (female character)

You can purchase these items as 5-piece sets that include the Helmet, Shirt, Armor, Pants, and Boots. These sets will both be available in the Weekly section of the Shop starting Thursday, May 31.

Keep an eye out for the Ancestral Skull Bow and Swingable Bear Trap weapons in the Daily section throughout the week and beyond.

Love these designs as much as we do? Check out these sweet wallpapers!
Cheerful Forest Murderer wallpaper: https://imgur.com/a/pHzdVgn
Dead Survivalist wallpaper: https://imgur.com/a/5meTGnZ



King Cold Shoulder (male character) and Icebreaker Prime (female character)

You can purchase these items as 5-piece sets that include the Helmet, Shirt, Armor, Pants, and Boots. These sets will both be available in the Weekly section of the Shop starting Thursday, June 7.

Keep an eye out for the Frozen Skull Bow (not pictured) and Frozen Trap Axe weapons in the Daily section throughout the week and beyond.



Islander Slayer (male character) and Samoan Smasher (female character)

All the items above, including the Dark Antlers and Steer of the Sea Helmets as well as the Pacific Skull Bow (not pictured) and Islander Trap Axe weapons, will begin as Daily items purchasable individually in the Shop.

• Axe hits will now be blockable earlier in the swing animation
  
• The Axe swing will now have the same reach on both the left and right sides
  
• Further improved server Axe hit detection (to minimize instances where it feels like an enemy can hit you from too far away)
  
• Adjusted the Axe jump attack hitbox to make it more consistent with the normal Axe attack
  
• The Cage Trap will now appear in front of the player instead of under when it is used
  
• All enemy Traps will now have three different visibility levels depending on whether you are standing still, running, or sprinting (previously, visibility was determined by your Boots upgrade level and Traps became difficult to spot at high movement speeds)
  
• Trap visibility level will update more quickly when switching between standing, running, and sprinting, meaning that it will no longer be necessary to come to a stop to search for enemy Traps
  
• The Lumberjack Axe will no longer speed up Trap deployment, Armor crafting, and First Aid Kit use
  
• Snowballs will now activate the BoomShroom and Electronic repel effect
  
• Damage received (except cold damage) will now refill player stamina

• Increased the number of daily items in the Item Shop from 3 to 6
  
• NEW: Items in the Item Shop will now rotate at 12:00 PM EDT (previously 11 AM EDT)
  
• Replaced “Archetype” with “Playstyle” in the Options menu

• Fixed an issue where the center zone would always close first in Duo Mode
  
• Fixed an issue where the Rookie label would not be displayed to the Show Director
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented the use of the Glider right after taking damage
  
• Fixed an issue where a normal Axe attack would sometimes register as a jump attack

Hello inmates,

Here are the changes coming to Steam Thursday, May 17 (expect maintenance from 11 AM EDT/3 PM UTC to about 12 PM EDT/4 PM UTC). Look forward to the ability to choose from a variety of Crafting Wheel Playstyles, an update on Show Director progression, new cosmetics, and more!

See you in the arena!



We’ve added different Crafting Wheel Playstyles you can choose from to familiarize yourself with different equipment and experiment with various strategies in the arena. Each of the Playstyles below will equip you with a pre-set combination of Perks, Basics, Tools, and Powers:

The Hunter: The Hunter is a tracking specialist who prefers to gather clues and information about their opponents before confronting them.

The Goon: The Goon throws caution to the wind and engages enemies using brute force. If there’s an enemy nearby, the Goon won’t pass up the chance to fight.

The Shadow: A master of stealth, the Shadow moves through the arena with ease, often favoring a well-placed arrow or trap to take care of pursuers.

Don’t exactly fit into any of these 3 Playstyles? Save your own Crafting Wheel by selecting Custom option. This way, even if you try out different equipment, you can easily come to back to your saved style.



We heard your feedback about the way new Show Director Powers are obtained. A lot of you felt that having a chance to unlock new Powers after each match left too much up to luck and was somewhat unclear, so we’ve decided to make the process more straight-forward.

With patch 1.11, Show Directors will have their own Level and Fan experience bar. A higher Rating will translate into more Fans after a given match. After the update, all Show Directors will be Level 1, and each new Level will be rewarded with a Show Director Power. Don’t worry: None of your existing Powers will be removed.

For now, only Contestants will receive Fan Gifts upon leveling up, but this may change once we’ve got more Show Director rewards ready!

First off: thanks to all the inmates who purchased the Supporter Pack from our in-game shop! The shop is about to expand its stock with more cosmetics, this time offered individually in exchange for Ramen. Visit the Ramen shop to purchase Ramen, then see what’s available in the Item shop and step into the arena more fashionable than ever.

Starting Thursday on Steam, inmates will be able to equip a set of all-new Axes (they might not look like Axes very much, but we promise they’re just as effective) and gas mask Hats. The cosmetics in the Item shop will rotate―some on a daily basis, and some on a weekly basis. So if the items you’re interested in aren’t available right away, check back a bit later! All of the items featured below will be available at some point over the course of the week.

As a reminder, cosmetics will never come with in-game advantages.

• Players will be able to join as the Show Director in Private Matches even if they do not meet the Level 10 prerequisite
  
• The Power Deck Show Directors select in Private Matches will stay saved for future Private Matches
  
• Show Directors will be able to see whether there are any Contestants in the match who have played fewer than 5 matches (a rookie icon will appear next to those players)―make them feel welcome, Show Directors!
  
• Decreased the Show Director Rating requirement for Telepathy from 4 stars to 3 stars
  
• Contestants will now only be able to rate the Show Director once they reach level 10

• Players' Show Director Level will now be displayed beside the Contestant Level in the main menu
  
• Reworked the Dressing Room interface

• Increased the weight of kills in the Official Rating computation

• The roof of the central treetop village in the North East area has collapsed due to structural stress from the many inmates hiding there during Sudden Death

• Adjusted the value of Ramen (the amount of Ramen converted from duplicate cosmetics will increase tenfold, also applied retroactively)
  
• Added a loading screen tip explaining the reward for drawing first blood in match
  
• Added a loading screen tip explaining the reward for your first match and first win each day

• Fixed an issue where the names of the Blue Shirt and Orange Shirt were inverted for the female character (yes, this was supposed to be fixed in the last patch, but massive technical issues like these take time)

Hello inmates,

It's time for episode two of our Behind the Scenes series! Scavengers Studio Creative Director is back to tell you all about the short-term improvements coming to Darwin Project.

Click the image UP to watch Behind the Scenes 2 with Simon Darveau: Summer Roadmap

Hope you're excited for what we've got in store, and catch you next time for episode 3!

See you in the arena!
- The Scavengers Team

Hello inmates,

We'd like to invite you to watch today's Darwin Invitational and participate with your votes! We've got a stellar lineup of contestants who will be randomly paired in Duos over the the course of 5 matches starting at 4 PM EDT!

Tune in to any of the streams to support your favourite contestant:

Forsen: https://www.twitch.tv/forsen
CDNthe3rd: https://www.twitch.tv/cdnthe3rd
xqc: https://www.twitch.tv/xQcOW
Ohmwrecker: https://www.twitch.tv/ohmwrecker
XChocoBars: https://www.twitch.tv/xchocobars
wtcN: https://www.twitch.tv/wtcn
Disguised Toast: https://www.twitch.tv/disguisedtoasths
MoMaN: https://www.twitch.tv/momanus
Shroud: https://www.twitch.tv/shroud
Jotobo: https://www.twitch.tv/jotobo
Show Director perspective: https://www.twitch.tv/darwinproject

Have fun everyone!

Hello inmates,

We’ve got a smaller patch for you this week that follows up on some features introduced in 1.10. These changes are coming to Steam on Tuesday, May 8. (We’ll update with the specific time when we can).

UPDATE: Maintenance for patch 1.10.1 will be from 11 AM to approximately 12 PM EDT (3 PM to 4 PM UTC).

In case you missed it on our social channels over the last couple days: On Friday we fixed an issue with Show Directors not earning Fans and gave them a roster of Powers proportional to their number of matches played when patch 1.10 went live. On Sunday, we fixed an issue with Show Directors being unable to direct Duos matches. Now you're all caught up! Check out the next changes in full below.

See you in the arena!



Thanks for your feedback, Show Directors! Our original Rating requirements allowed only a small fraction of Show Director players to use the full suite of currently available Powers, so we’ve lowered them to the following:

Warm Up - 2.5
Give Wood - 2.5
Electronic - 2.5
Close Zone - 2.5
Speed Up - 3
Expose - 3
Electro-mania - 3
Telepathy - 3
Blood Moon - 3
Heal - 3.5
Gravity Storm - 3.5
Nuke - 3.5
Manhunt - 3.5

We also removed these requirements in Private Matches, allowing Show Directors to use any Power they have obtained during Private Matches regardless of their Rating.

• Updated the default set of Powers available to Show Directors:
  - Give Wood x 2
  - Warm Up x 1
  - Electronic x 2
  - Close Zone x 2
  - Nuke x 1
  
• The Show Director Megaphone is now back to a default ability on a cooldown and will no longer appear in the Power Deck
  
• Removed the red sound wave visual emitted by a tree when a player was hidden inside
  
• Player status icons will now be displayed during Telepathy to clarify who is speaking

• Increased the duration of Blood Moon from 1 minute to 2 minutes
  
• Added voiceover and sound effects to accompany the Blood Moon start, plus music for the entire duration
  
• Blood Moon will change the time of day to midnight and a giant moon emitting red light in the sky will appear.

• Fixed an issue where arrows would sometimes go through some trees
  
• Fixed an issue where the Slow Power, which does not actually exist, was made available to Show Directors
  
• Fixed an issue that would not display the correct amount of matches needed to appear in the Arrow Accuracy, Headshot Ratio, Average Rank, Average Number of Kills, Win Ratio, and Show Director Rating leaderboards
  
• Fixed an issue where clues didn’t work properly while Blood Moon was in effect
  
• Fixed an issue where Expose would sometimes not expose anyone
  
• Fixed an issue where a newly unlocked Show Director power would not appear in the Power Deck until another match was played
  
• Fixed a typo in Show Director Power info text
  
• Fixed an issue where Show Directors could not see their cursor until they opened and closed the Power Deck
  
• Fixed an issue where players’ Official Ratings would not decrease when they died by lava or cold
  
• Fixed an issue where the names of the Blue Shirt and Orange Shirt were inverted for the female character

Hello inmates,

It’s almost time for patch 1.10! If the last changelist you read was 1.9, be sure to check out this catch-up post detailing the hotfixes we pushed over the course of the last week.

Patch 1.10 will come to Steam Friday, March 4 (expect maintenance from 11 AM EDT - 12 PM EDT) Don’t miss our devstream during the maintenance! Tune in here: https://www.twitch.tv/darwinproject

UPDATE: We’ve rescheduled the maintenance and devstream to 1 PM – 2 PM EDT on May 4.

See you in the arena!



There are some big changes in here, so a little bit about the reasoning first. Being the Show Director is a big responsibility: the skill and personality of the Show Director has a lot of impact on the contestants’ play experiences. With the progression system, we’re rewarding experienced Show Director with more Powers and influence over the match while giving newer Show Directors the ability to learn the role with more basic Powers before they become familiar with the mechanics and grow into their style.

From now on, when you play a Darwin Project match where there’s a Show Director with access to Powers such as Manhunt, you’ll know that they earned the ability to use them by playing several matches and maintaining a high Rating throughout. Here's what's involved in the progression system:

1. The prerequisite to play as the Show Director is now Level 10 instead of 5 matches played.
2. Show Directors will begin with a limited amount of available Powers and unlock new ones as they play. Some Powers can be unlocked and equipped multiple times, whereas others can only appear in the Power Deck once.
3. All Powers have an associated Show Director Rating requirement. The higher the Power’s potential to influence the match, the higher the required Rating the use it.
4. The Show Director role will become unavailable if players fall below a 2.5 star Show Director Rating, but can work their way back up by playing matches as contestants

We’re really excited about this improvement since it’s one of the most requested Show Director features, and it’ll create a lot of new Director styles and combinations. Show Directors will be able to browse available Powers and insert them in their Power Decks as they see fit. The Power Deck is customizable from the main menu as well as from the lobby, so the Show Director can decide on the Powers they’re bringing into the match after getting to know the contestants a little bit!




Give Wood (Cost 1): Channel your inner Wood Delivery Guy and give a chosen player 3 Woods.

Expose (Cost 3): The selected player and their nearest opponent both receive a clue on each other

Telepathy (Cost 5): All players can hear one another’s voices

Blood Moon (Cost 5): All players track one another

Electro-mania (Cost 5): Activate all Electronics

We look forward to hearing about your experiences with all these new Powers! We’ll be polishing them over the next few weeks, so don’t hesitate to share your feedback.


Many of you have been asking for ways to support Darwin Project now that it is free to play on Steam. First of all: thank you. We didn’t expect to see so much of this feedback, and it means a lot to us that you care. Or maybe you just really like shopping for clothes? That’s cool, too.

We’re introducing a simple in-game shop with just one purchase option to start: the Supporter Pack. Here’s what it contains:



As a reminder, alternate clothes and weapon appearances will never come with in-game advantages.

Keep an eye out for more stylish items in the near future!

• The Show Director Manhunt Power can now only be used when at least 4 players are alive and at least 2 zones remain
  
• In Private Matches, Show Directors now have the ability to start the game in Solo or Duo Mode (teams are chosen at random)
  
• Decreased visibility for players hidden in a tree
  
• Hiding in a tree will now cause it to shake and emit sound effects
  
• Arrows used to kill Deer will be retrievable from the body again
  
• Shortened the Axe jump attack damage window by 30 milliseconds
  
• Tweaked Axe animation timing to improve fluidity and feedback in combat
  
• Changed the default Mute All key from Y to M
  
• Increased the amount of Wood salvageable from dead players
  
• Aiming your bow no longer consumes stamina, but it does slow down its regeneration

• NEW 5/04: Decreased loading times

• An icon will now appear next to your mute icon when you are talking
  
• Updated the match end screen
  
• Added an option to watch Behind the Scenes videos from the main menu
  
• Corrected the Revenge Cloak description in the Crafting Wheel

• You must now play at least 50 matches to appear on the Arrow Accuracy, Headshot Ratio, Average Rank, Average Number of Kills, Win Ratio, and Show Director Rating leaderboards
  
• Leaderboards will now reset at 11:00 AM ET (3:00 PM UTC) instead of 3:00 PM ET (7:00 PM UTC) to correspond with our (semi) regular maintenance time. Resets will still occur every other week on Tuesdays, with the next Steam reset being May 8. The remaining time before resets will be displayed as a countdown above the leaderboards.

• Fixed an issue where players who downloaded Darwin Project after the free-to-play transition did not have access to all skin colour and hairstyle options
  
• Fixed an issue where players would sometimes jump out of the window in a buried house and fall into an abyss
  
• Fixed an invisible player collision under the bridge
  
• Fixed collisions on big trees being a bit wider than the tree
  
• Fixed an issue where Electronics would sometimes play the wrong animation
  
• The final zone will never be Nuked, even if it wins an audience vote
  
• Fixed an issue where players would sometimes start the match with 5 Arrows