May 9

Rabbit and Steel - mino_dev

Hello rabbits!!

It's been a hot minute since I wrote a real dev blog. The last one was in... uhh was it really December...? Gosh, I need to make these things more often.

I've been drawing!
Mostly game assets for the DLC, but some other things as well.

I now have all of the character and enemy animations for the DLC done.
I also have all the playable character abilities and upgrades done; which means I can start putting sneak-peeks of them into these proofs of life dev logs.

But first....

Today is the 1-year anniversary of the game's release!!
It's truly been a wild year.
I won't go into too many personal details, but quite a bit has changed for me in 12 months!
It's all thanks to you guys, and I couldn't overstate how eternally grateful I am.

So again, thank you all so much for playing.
Onto the class preview!

I frequently get character class requests! And I do sometimes listen to them.
By far, the most requested class I got was "Gunner". The second-most-requested is a bit harder to pin down, but "Alchemist" was definitely up there.

So I combined those ideas into one class! Introducing the Grenadier Rabbit: a long-ranged fighter with unparalleled versatility.

The Grenadier Rabbit's base kit is very simple.
First, her Primary: A very quick shot that does a decent amount of damage. By default, her Primary has 6 shots before she needs to reload.
How does she reload? Well, her Secondary!
It's an "attack" that does no damage, and runs your GCD for 2 whole seconds.

Her Special is a thrown "grenade"!
She throws an exploding potion a fixed distance infront of her.

And her Defensive is just a quick duck for cover.
Nothing too special... though, it does have an additional effect of resetting your GCD; so you can use it to reload a little bit faster if you're looking for a little more DPS at the expense of your invulnerability.

Seems like a pretty simple class, right...?
Not quite! What really makes Grenadier Rabbit interesting are her ability upgrades.

Her Primary upgrades all turn her gun into a different "weapon".
For instance, her Sapphire Primary is a bit like a semi-automatic.
Her Garnet Primary is an electro-gun.
Her Emerald Primary is a rocket launcher!

Her Secondary upgrades... don't actually change her Secondary at all!
Instead, they further augment her Primary.
You can mix and match effects to get some wild results!

Her Special and Defensive work together the same way; with her Defensive upgrades affecting her Special, while the Defensive itself stays the same.
By taking upgrades for both, you can create some crazy effects.

All this wackiness was pretty complicated to put together, programming-wise.
But, I think the end result captures the "alchemist" fantasy quite well.
Pick a gun, pick some ammo, mix some potions, and get experimental! (When the DLC comes out, that is)

So to clear up any possible confusion, this is just a preview! I haven't updated the game or anything yet.
My original goal when I first decided to do this DLC was to get it out by the game's first anniversary, but making games certainly does take longer than you think. And, maybe this is all a bit more than I originally thought it was going to be.

But the only thing that could stop this DLC is me literally dying! You guys have truly changed my life and given me all the financial leeway I could ever ask for.
So I've got all the time in the world to make things, if you've got the patience to wait for them.
At my current pace, I'm hoping this all comes together around September or October; December at the absolute latest.

Current progress in detail:

New Stages: Just missing the music!
New Characters: Just missing SFX!
New Enemies: Animations are done, but I still need to make the fights (including their gimmicks)
New Items: I've written down a bunch of ideas, but haven't implemented anything yet
New Trinkets: Haven't started!
New Story: I've written a few things....

That might not look like there's a lot done, but the animations and characters are one of the big tasks, and that's now behind me.
In fact, I've already got it set up so I can "play through" a run of the DLC areas; the bosses just don't do anything yet.

I'm going to tackle the items and trinkets next, and hopefully get them all done by late-June. Then onto boss fights; which I think I can get finished by the end of August. And then there's the story, which I don't think will take too long to put together; I'm planning on it being a bit shorter than the one in the base game.

After that is just transations, testing and touch-ups!

See you all again in the next progress report, in a month and a half or so!

May 9

Update 1.1: The Compendium

Crashlands 2 - sacred atom

https://i.imgur.com/WVcJnFR.png

OH HI THERE! It’s been a few weeks since the launch of Crashlands 2, and it has been a REAL WHIRLWIND! Tons of players have gotten their hands on the game, and they’ve left us LOTS of feedback. We've read nearly every comment and review, everywhere people are talking about the game, and found a bunch of fair critiques (and some super mean ones 😭... some of y'all need a stress ball or pile of kittens or something). After all of this time working on Crashlands 2 we'd be silly not to take some additional time to address those, and so we are!

In this post we'll talk about two things: the huge patch we just dropped (1.1), and what's coming next!

TL;DR Patch 1.1

Before we get too deep in the weeds, here's the concise(ish) list of ALL of the things that are in this Patch. For full details, read the whole post!

Major Additions

The Compendium. Like in the original Crashlands, there is now a sort of in-game encyclopedia for all the stuff you find in the world. Plus game stats!
Praise RNGesus! Armor now rolls random stats when crafted, and you can salvage old armor pieces!
Pet redesign! Pets now constantly attack in combat, and have a 20-second cooldown “Special Ability.”
Funner, quicker. You now unlock 3 kinds of weapons right away instead of just one, and there are a bunch of new trinkets and gadgets you can get VERY early on.
There's any place like Home. You can now set any teleporter as your "Home".
Legend Mode! Some people said that Challenge Mode was too easy. Time to put your money where your mouth is.
Exploration Mode! It turns out that "Chill Mode" wasn't all that chill. Instead of making it chiller, we just added an Exploration Mode for people who want combat to be almost completely stress-free!
Boneless terrain. Tired of building around bones, ship debris, and other stuff in the way of the base of your dreams? Now you can BLAST that crap out of existence with your Space Wrench!
Underfoot Pets, GONE. Tired of your pets getting in the way while you're trying to pull up docks or place workstations? They'll now teleport out of the way.
Right Triggered. Some players REALLY didn't like how Right Trigger was set as the keybind for default interactions throughout the game. We swear it's better that way. But now you can decide for yourself: choose A or RT as your default action button!

New Settings

Added a Graphics setting to allow the user to cap their FPS to save battery. This defaults to 60 on mobile and "Highest Possible" on other platforms.
Added a graphics setting to modify how dark the game gets at night.

Improvements

Later-game nets can now be used to capture critters from prior biomes.
All small versions of creatures now drop loot.
The Ice Hook can now grapple onto your DED Dummy, pulling you to it.
Special fish, such as the Boops fish or quest rewards, will now drop from any type of fishing (Whopper or Open Water).
Rephrased Kleewik's Spicy Cabinet comfort to reliably convey that you have already crafted one and that it just needs to be moved into his room.
Updated the Missing Scout storyline to use a Hook Point as its icon, and to have the quest text explain that you'll need to craft a Hook Point to get across.
Updated the Shmu's embiggening quest to explicitly state to use a Shmuma Compressor.
Added additional weak lighting to all withered objects to somewhat enhance navigability at night time.
The buttons along the top of the in-game menu are now aqua-colored when selected, to make it easier to tell which tab you have selected.
Added light emitters to a bunch of projectiles, which should make fighting in the dark more exciting!
Most pet ability telegraphs are now larger.

Fixes

Volbab no longer shows as a source for Volb Cables until you have researched them.
Acquiring the Ripper Shard in the Obelisk room now closes the quest to clear the bots.
The bots in the Ripper Shard Obelisk room will no longer despawn immediately upon picking up the Ripper Shard.
Speaking with GUY-D on the second Landing Pad in the Nexus Shipping area will now close the quest to clear the bots on the first Landing Pad if you haven't cleared them out by then.
Graal should no longer care if you give them MORE than one Clay Planter for the Cultivator Comfort.
Fixed an issue where abilities that fire multiple projectiles in different directions would show their arrow telegraphs slightly offset from the true projectile path.
Polari Grand Firepit is now hidden when under closed roofs so it doesn't clip through them.
Extended Shattered Shelf area near the Globbone schematic to remove a gap in music/fishing.
Fixed an issue where the quest log was only scrollable with a controller if your mouse cursor was hovering over that location on the screen prior to using the controller.
Forced-movement effects now fully stop updating when the game is paused, which should resolve an issue where pausing the game in the same frame as a Shmu's leap attack ending would cause the camera to vibrate nonstop.
Fixed an issue where if you are holding the attack button and then initiate movement and then juke and then release movement during the juke while still holding the attack button, Flux wouldn't resume attacking.
Fixed an issue that caused crazy camera behaviors when talking to the Acolyte in the Aquadunes under certain conditions.
The game will no longer crash if you stand in the projectile of a gardened Volbab and destroy the Volbab while the projectile is in the air.
Added FPS rounding to reduce stuttering on certain displays that have non-integer refresh rates.

Patch 1.2 and beyond

Patch 1.1 was all about addressing the most common player requests that affect the whole game. As we start work on patch 1.2 and beyond, we’ll be focusing on the next major points of player feedback, which is a desire for more pets, more stuff in the Aquadunes, and more base building options.

We also acknowledge players wanting more bosses to fight as well as some kind of endgame or postgame stuff to do, and we intend to shore that up as well! We’ll revisit that stuff after we finish patch 1.2. We can only do one thing at a time, so you’ll have to be patient as we work our way through the list! Now... On to patch 1.1!

Patch 1.1 DETAILS

If you made it this far then we're going to assume you like words and reading them. So prepare to experience the Patch Notes of a lifetime!

The Compendium

In patch 1.1 you’ll find a new tab in your in-game menu for THE COMPENDIUM!

"IMAGE

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Now, as you explore Woanope you’ll unlock new knowledge about the wild things you encounter, so you can use your Compendium as a handy reference for what things are called, what they look like, and what loot they drop. We also added a bunch of new stats that you can track, such as how many times you’ve died, how many plants you’ve farmed, and how many lives you’ve mercilessly ended!

Aside from all that, the Compendium also gives you a way to see how much of the game you’ve completed. Did you find all the Jems? Hatch and embiggen every pet? Discover all recipes? Find all special combat items? Now you'll be able to find out!

Randomized Armor

One of the core parts of the Crashlands 1 experience was crafting items and having random qualities and stats pop in. Whenever you crafted armor or weapons, you were never quite sure what you were going to get, and every now and then you’d get a surprise turbo powerful item.

Because of the huge number of changes in how items function in Crashlands 2, we didn’t think we could make random stats work in a balanced way. So up until now, all items in Crashlands 2 had specific, fixed stats on them.

But after hearing from so many players that they loved the random stats system, and that they were bummed out by no longer having it in Crashlands 2, we decided to revisit that decision and find a way to bring it back. So in patch 1.1, all crafted armor pieces will get random qualities and stats assigned to them. There’s even a small chance to craft a LEGENDARY armor piece with bonus stats!

"Image

https://i.imgur.com/TTBSTkK.jpeg

To accommodate this change, we’ve added a few other tweaks as well.

Armor crafting costs have been reduced by about 1/3, since most players will want to craft the same armor piece multiple times and fish for good stats.
To allow crafting the same armor piece multiple times, armor pieces no longer require the prior tier of armor as a crafting ingredient.
We’ve added a Salvaging mechanism in the Equipment page, so you can get some materials back from armor pieces that you no longer care about.
Armor is now part of the Loadouts system, so you can use different pieces of armor that have different stats for your various builds.
We rebalanced the stat breakdown on armor pieces so there isn’t quite as big of a difference between the stat values of each piece.
When you load into patch 1.1 on an older save, your existing armor will get random stats assigned to it, so you won’t need to craft new armor to start seeing this system.

Thanks to everyone who spoke up about wanting this feature! When we hear that lots of people want something, it gives us a nice nudge to take a step back and try to find ways to make something happen, even if we hadn’t originally planned on doing it.

Home Sweet Home

We’ve got a lot of players who are going ABSOLUTELY NUTS on the base-building side of things. But there were a few things standing in the way of maximum base-building enjoyment, so we set out to correct those.

https://i.imgur.com/auubvhZ.jpeg

Lots of people wanted to move their base somewhere besides the starting location. But that pesky "Home" button on the map would only take them to the crash pod, so it was annoying finding their actual home on the map and teleporting to it. No more! Now you can set your Home to any teleporter on the map! To change your home location, simply interact with any teleporter and click the button to set your home. Have fun setting up shop in the Spark Flats and getting absolutely annihilated by Ampy Chargers every time you go home.

"Image

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We expanded the capabilities of the Zapper, so you can now blast more things out of the way to make room for your base. Like the debris from your ship, bones, and a few other odds-and-ends. This will let you clear out a lot more space so you can build the base OF YOUR DREAMS! We also made a few tweaks to the world map layout in a few areas to make it easier to build a contiguous base across some bodies of water.

Last, we updated Build Mode so your pet no longer gets in the way of whatever you’re trying to do. You can build RIGHT on top of your pet, and if you put it into an impossible situation, it’ll just teleport to you. No more worrying about awkwardly shuffling your pet around so you can pick up the docks from under its feet!

New Early-Game Items!

In the early game, riding the line between giving people enough interesting stuff to do while keeping new players from getting overwhelmed is a huge design challenge. Based on the feedback we've gotten so far, it looks like we leaned too hard on the "not getting overwhelmed" side of things. So lots of people found that the early game just felt too slow. WHOOPS.

This was particularly true for combat, since you didn't really have any choices about how to approach combat until you'd unlocked a bunch of stuff over the first few hours of gameplay. This prolonged lack of options made early-game combat more difficult, clunky, and gave the impression that combat just wasn't as interesting as the original. So we added a whole bunch of new items to plug that early-game hole!

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First, we added new Injector and Capacitor weapons throughout the crafting tiers all the way down to the very start of the game. You now unlock them at the same time as you unlock the Rayblade Shanker (the very first weapon), giving you multiple choices for your preferred playstyle INSTANTLY.

"Image

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We also added two new super-early craftable gadgets and a new craftable trinket for the Slinger and Chemist sets. We rolled them into existing Insights, so you’ll probably already have them in your existing save, and you’ll be able to build them very soon after starting a new game.

And last, we added a rare Firebrand gadget, the Hot Hive, that has a chance to drop from Explungus. What does it do, you ask? You’ll have to BEE patient and find out for yourself!

All of these new items are available before you even reach the Stoneworks, so the early-game now feels much more fun and alive, with lots of cool combat options opening up very quickly.

Pet Overhaul!

Crashlands 2 brought some big changes to pets -- how you get eggs, how you hatch them, how you embiggen them, and the passive bonuses they provide to the player. Each pet is unique and brings interesting ways to affect how you build out your character.

"Image

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We’ve gotten great responses from players about all these changes, but there’s one pet change that NOBODY LIKES: The way your pet fights. In Crashlands 2, pets have been more of a “support” system, where they don’t do a whole lot of fighting. Instead, they hang back, and deploy a big damage attack on a 20-second cooldown. When we were designing pets in Crashlands 2, we wanted them to be more of a “nuke” than a “chip away at stuff slowly” type of mechanic. However, this hasn’t panned out -- we miscalculated what players found fun about the combat aspect of pets. Players have given lots of feedback that they want it to feel like they’re fighting alongside their pet, and not just being occasionally supported by the pet.

To us, the only thing that matters is that our players are having a good time. Sometimes our design ideas just don’t translate into giving players the experience they want, and this was one of them.

So in patch 1.1, we’ve fully rebuilt how pets work. Now they fight alongside you in combat, dealing constant damage with one or more basic attacks that have no cooldowns. But we still wanted to have the fun “nuke” concept, so each pet now has a “Special Ability” on a 20-second cooldown, which it will use to deliver big damage. After playtesting with this new pet system, we can confirm that THIS IS INDEED MORE FUN! Thanks to everyone who spoke up about this feature!

The Right Button

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When some of our players learned that they had to press the Right Trigger to do stuff in Crashlands 2 when playing with a controller, many of them began vomiting profusely and then died of broken hearts. As it turns out, some players really really like using the A button instead. We violated that trust, and although we can never undo the horrific damage we caused by defaulting the game to Right Trigger, we hope we can at least prevent such tragedies in the future. So Patch 1.1 adds an alternate controller configuration that lets you use the A button instead.

For those with particularly adaptable brains, you can even use the A button in menus and RT for in-game stuff (or vice versa). We tried every combination ourselves and then had to take a mental health day to recover. We're still team RT-for-everything over here, but to each their own!

New Difficulties!

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Get Out There!

For players who felt that Chill Mode was most certainly NOT chill, we’ve added a new difficulty: EXPLORATION MODE! Exploration Mode is designed for players who are seeking to simply enjoy the story, build bases, and explore the world of Crashlands 2 without being stressed out by the imminent fear of death. In this game mode, we’ve slowed down the combat aspects of the game even further, and we gave the player so much health that you are effectively an immortal god who can never die.

You call THAT a Challenge?

On the flip side, we had a bunch of players who beat the game on Challenge Mode, and then said, “BUT CAN IT BE... EVEN HARDER?” The answer, of course, is YERP.

Patch 1.1 brings a new top-tier difficulty called LEGEND MODE. This mode makes enemies attack faster and move faster, it reduces your health even further than Challenge Mode, and it gives enemies a significant HP boost. This new mode is only recommended for players who have quick reflexes, a strong sense of how to utilize every aspect of your gadgets and trinkets in combat, and a good understanding of how to assemble equipment loadouts that do extremely high amounts of damage.

Legend Mode has no achievements associated with it, but beating Legend Mode will give you all the other achievements for beating the game on the lower difficulties. Because at that point you’ve earned it!

Other Stuff!

This patch also has a lot of other stuff, but we don't need to get into the weeds on those. It's all in the TL;DR above!

May 9

Update #245: Buff Right Out

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint - Trese Brothers

Knights and mercs, we are rolling out a polish update for Friday. We're constantly working to keep up with the F10s coming in from the community, taking your feedback, fixing bugs and improving everything we can. This update is a big one, hitting on a ton of nice things for you - it's polish Friday! We've improved the rules for Cyber Knights getting new implants, fixed a big bug with Gunslinger's Fanning, made a host of improvements for the Steam Deck controls and clarity of display on its screen, improved noise display of Talents and Items like grenades and more. Let the F10s fall, let the cyberpunk reign!

If you are enjoying the relentless pace of updates for the game, please take a moment to leave a review. Our tiny dev team thanks you!

Cyber Knight + Cyber = Rapid Integration

When a Cyber Knight takes on a quantum rider into their spine, it changes them forever. The integration of the quantum tactical computer is deep, and it makes them extremely fast, tough, and at times, nearly prescient.

Another benefit of the quantum rider is that a Cyber Knight's body responds exceptionally well to new cybernetics. To bring this lore into the game, we've added the Rapid Integration special rule for Cyber Knights - their recovery time from cyber surgery is now automatically half of what it is for a normal merc. This is also a big help to keep your Knight in the action, as so many missions, heists, and critical outings require their presence.

We also fixed a bug where some of the special rules for implants had bad text in their title and if a cybernetic was installing you couldn't hover over it to see all of its stats until it finished the install. Plus finally, if a slot has no options to install, then it is grayed out and cannot be accessed.

Happy splicing!

Gunslinger Fanning

We've fixed the bug with Gunslinger's Fanning. Once you took some shots with Fanning you were basically locked into Full Auto mode forever. Heck, I think if you had a Sword it would be a Full Auto Sword. ... Now I wish we had this bug back.

Fixed!

Steam Deck Screen Mode + Controls Update

With Update #245, we've made a wide set of improvements for the Steam Deck.

First, we've addressed an issue where due to the small screen of the Steam Deck, a lot of basic UI images were rendering badly. For example, the selection lines for a button could disappear because in the source image (designed for 1080p) the yellow line is only 1 px wide, and when scaled down a bit, that can go to 0 px wide and poof. So, we've updated over 100 images and UI situations in the game in which the Steam Deck wasn't giving good clarity of its UI rendering - from the buttons to backgrounds, class tree and more. None of these were big blockers, but they did make the game less nice to look at - so key work! Thanks to everyone reporting F10s here!

We've improved the display for Full Auto and Grenade Arc on the Deck and controllers. Due to a lack of total button count, controllers start with a single button (RT) bound to changing the target count or adjusting the grenade arc. To still give you the full functionality, we've ensured that it is properly labeled, that the unbound key is hidden, and that the targets/arc loop as you press the single button. So, if you have 4 Full Auto targets, pressing (RT) once will loop you back to 1 target, then 2, 3, 4, and then 1 again. This gives you the full range of options with a single button.

We've also made 3 changes to the Matrix to make it more controller / Steam Deck friendly:

The IC panel now auto-scrolls with the selected element. Ahhh, nice.
When the Matrix screen came up on your second Turn in the Matrix and you were using a controller, the selection state was left in a bad way that made it really hard to get going for that Turn. This is now resolved.
When you disconnected from the Matrix, sometimes your Hacker would not be able to move afterwards, or moving another character would actually move the Hacker (!?!)

Item/Talent Noise Warnings

With Update #245, we've updated how Talents control the noise icons overhead of enemies on the map. Now, when you select a Talent or Item to use, the overhead noise icons will only appear if that Talent or Item creates enough noise to alert them. This is most useful for Grenades where the overhead ear can let you know how many enemies will hear that big boom. It can also give confirmation for Talents like Venom Trap and items like Shock Mine that when thrown, no one will hear it.

In the case of a weapon attack, the regular Ear icon is shown. In the case of noise caused by a Talent, a small box is inserted around the Ear. This can help you spot the difference when it matters.

Face Talent Alignment

It is small but felt important - the Face Talent list now always aligns nicely with the Cold Storage border, regardless of screen resolution.

v1.10.49 - 5/9/2025

- All cyber surgery recovery times for Cyber Knight reduced by 50% - quantum rider hardens their system and speeds integration
- Fixed bug with Gunslinger's Fanning that could keep you locked in Full Auto mode forever
- Improved screen scaling mode for Steam Deck, updated hundreds of UI images to scale better, improve rendering of backgrounds and selection
- Steam Deck / Controller - fixed Matrix IC panel not correcty auto-scrolling with selection
- Steam Deck / Controller - fixed Matrix not having correct selection setup on second turn sometimes
- Steam Deck / Controller - improved controls for Full Auto / Grenade arc, with one button bound it will "loop" to make all options available
- Fixed bug where you might be unable to move after Hacking or Hacker might move when another player moves (!!?)
- Further improved variety of Leverages offered for missions in the Hacking Station
- Fixed issues with character Initiative changing if you reload the first Turn sometimes
- Prevented Face Handbrake Talent from being used with highest priority story missions, such as Meteoric Hotdrop
- Fixed bug with Paused nodes not always sorting to the end of the timeline
- When planning a Talent/Item use that make noise - such as a grenade - the overhead "will hear" icons update to be for Talent
- Improved Safehouse UI for Face Talents so that they always line up nicely with the border of Cold Storage room
- Improved cyber surgery screen by disabling/greying out out slots that have 0 options so it is more clear
- Fixed issue where cybernetic would not show its details while it was installing
- Fixed bug where incorrect attack details in top right were shown when a grenade throw was being planned
- Fixed missing name of some high value Cred Chips
- Fixed recruit character name missing from warning that recruit offer is about to expire
- Fixed bug where sometimes tags on mission deploy screen could be overly large of bump UI down incorrectly
- Removed Screen Scale option (it broke all screens) - use Font Size + Screen Mode

May 9

Update 15: The New Prologue, Rewritten Paths, and a Clearer Future

Heart of the Machine - Matt (Hooded Horse)

This one’s been cooking for a while.

The rewritten prologue adds three main paths, sub-branches within each, and a broad set of reactive outcomes that weren’t possible before. You can comply, resist, disappear, or burn everything down. These changes ripple into chapter one, which now plays faster and offers more space to explore without getting stuck in step-by-step tasks.

Plenty of other changes are in too. Some came through beta feedback, others are fresh. The Analysis Lens now includes “Distance From Machines” to help you track what humans think they’ve found. Subnets are gone entirely. Background Conflicts have also been removed and will eventually be replaced with something sharper. The Force Conversation ability has been overhauled so it actually does what it’s meant to, complete with targeting lines and proper activation.

Decrowners, slum drones, nanoseeds, and small nukes are all easier to wield now thanks to minimum range changes. Daily Necessities production has been multiplied. And in chapter 3 and beyond, you now get a grace period at timeline start, so the doom clocks won't begin before you’ve built your first node.

If you’ve been waiting for a steadier version to begin with, this is a good place to start. And if you’ve been helping test builds all along, thank you. Your fingerprints are on a lot of this.

Here's a quick reference table that goes over what's been added in Update 15.

Feature

Description

Prologue Rework

New branching structure with early choices leading to multiple outcomes. The Mysterious Box serves as a narrative anchor with long-term consequences.

Opening Structure

Players engage with the world immediately. Tutorials are lighter and context-sensitive, giving more space to explore and interact.

Chapter One Updates

Early projects are grouped for better flow. Guidance is reduced, and optional content is easier to reach without backtracking.

Stealth Networks

Stealth bases and decoy towers enable hidden playstyles. Visibility and detection are affected by structure types and placement.

Grey Goo Events

Some prologue paths trigger network collapse, scattering towers across the map. Includes new achievements and narrative variants.

New City Layouts

Three new biomes—Militarized Narrows, Wealthy, and Disparate Narrows—each with distinct tactical and logistical traits.

Upgrade System Redesign

Old system replaced with instant task-based upgrades. Grouped by domain to reduce clutter and improve readability.

Vorsiber Presence

Now appears early in-game. Tracks progress, tests player choices, and reveals internal conflicts in their organization.

Hostile Manifesto Path

Independence leads to destruction, censorship, and a second NanoSeed. Offers insight into the game’s broader power struggle.

Achievements

New achievements tied to stealth, resistance, syndicate activity, and alternate outcomes in the prologue.

Here's Update 15 in its entirety, with the nitty gritty changes found on the Heart of the Machine wiki.

[expand type=details expanded=false]

Clarity

Subnet Removal: Subnets are no longer shown or discussed in the game. These were confusing and did not add anything meaningful.
Icon Clarification: Counter-hacker and hack-breaker icons have been made visually distinct from the Intrusion Support icon, making it easier to tell if they can be physically attacked.
Distance From Machines Lens: A new Analysis Lens highlights where humans think your buildings are, helping gauge stealth network exposure.
Suggested Buildings Help: If you are not already in the suggested tab of the build menu, and something new is added to it, then the game now will switch you to the suggested tab either the next time you open the build menu, or right away if the build menu is already open.

Balance

Minimum Use Range Increases: Decrowner Drones, capture drones, slum rescue drones, nanoseeds, and small nukes all now have longer minimum use ranges, making them easier to control.
Factory Output Increase: Daily Necessities Factory output has been multiplied sixfold.
Timeline Grace Period: In chapter 3+, timelines now begin with a grace period where dooms are paused and players can freely build until the Initial Construction project is completed. Many contemplations are disabled during this phase. Especially impactful in extreme mode.
Background Conflicts Removed: The underused Background Conflicts system has been removed. A new mechanic, Rogue Escalations, will replace it in a future update.

Quality of Life

Force Conversation Rework: Can now be toggled even when out of range and displays lines to valid targets.
Sprint Range Indicator: Sprinting beyond half-range now shows a yellow radius ring. Exceeding it turns the ring red, making limits clearer.
Broken Structure Handling: Destroyed buildings in a broken state can now be replaced directly, with the broken version automatically scrapped.
Transient Message Optimization: Minor messages like autosave notifications now display even during hover states and are not saved to reduce save file clutter.
The End Of Time: You can now see your neural expansion in tooltips in the end of time, as well as on the sidebar listing all of your timelines.

Bugfixes

Bastion Labeling: Removed the Bastion from being part of the chapter one critical path, as it was only optional.
Minor Exceptions: Corrected half a dozen rare and minor exceptions reported by players.
Savegame Bugfix: Fixed a savegame serialization error that could happen in rare circumstances when saving an action over time that had just ended..
Atca Theft Fix: During the Steal Atca Bank Records project, it now counts both encrypted and decrypted data towards the target of this.
Deterrence Calculation Race Condition: Fixed a very rare race condition where, when loading certain savegames, it was treating the deterrence as if it was too low on all the player buildings, and then spawning in hundreds of enemies.
High-Altitude Transport Reward: High-Altitude Military Transports now give you minds for your virtual uploads, and count as soldier kills for all the soldiers on board, the same as happens with smaller Military Troop Carriers. To be honest, this was an oversight partly due to the fact that I didn't think anyone could even kill these through normal gameplay yet!
Nuke The Nukes: If you have any small nuclear weapons, those are now lost when you transition into the post-apocalypse. For understandable lore reasons, these would not survive.
Let The Vitamin Water Flow: Fixed a bug with Water For Nomads where if you were already maxed out on storage with 150k+ of vitamin water, then it would not consider the project ready to complete.
Camera Savegame Position: Fixed a fairly subtle bug where if you have a savegame that was made while you were on the city map, then it won't remember your camera position in a sensible way. It will instead remember the camera position that you last had when you were in the streets view.
Undead Mainframes: Fixed a bug where destroyed buildings were providing Neural Expansion.

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New Prologue, New Paths

The prologue has been completely rewritten. What was once a fixed sequence is now an open experience where choices matter from the first moment. Players can comply or resist during the initial encounter, and each path branches into different outcomes, events, and mechanics.

The “Mysterious Box” anchors the early narrative. Whether you ignore it, investigate it, or weaponize it, it leads to new scenes, decisions, and long-term consequences. The hidden conspiracy from earlier versions can now be traced, challenged, or even embraced.

Replay value is high. A single run gives players everything they need to proceed, but repeated playthroughs reveal deeper lore, faction relationships, and alternate versions of key scenes. As such, you can now replay the prologue as part of new timelines, later in the game, if you wish!

Opening Structure and Player Choice

Players now interact with the world from the beginning in ways that reflect the game’s broader emphasis on agency. From speaking to strangers to examining or ignoring key items, every choice leads to different reactions and possible routes forward.

The game still introduces essential controls and concepts, such as movement and camera operation, early on. After that, instructional elements scale back considerably. Optional tips remain accessible in the upper right if players need support, but for the most part, information is surfaced only when it serves the moment. Much of the design focuses on staying out of the way while still being available.

Chapter One Updates

Following the prologue, the first stretch of chapter one has also been reworked. Early projects now group multiple build tasks together, reducing the sense of step-by-step micromanagement. Notifications have been thinned out, and support appears less frequently unless needed.

This is part of a broader shift. Over the past few months, side content has been steadily added throughout chapter one. With this update, the opening 15 percent now reflects the same attention to flexibility seen in the prologue. Future updates are planned to extend this branching further into the main path, but the full level of freedom still begins in chapter two.

While chapter one remains the longest part of the tutorial experience, its structure has begun to shift. The experience is taller than the prologue—more guided and directed—but now includes more width through optional content and lighter guidance.

Stealth Network and Decoy Towers

A full stealth playstyle is now supported. Players can build a hidden network source while setting up a decoy tower elsewhere. 99% of Human factions will focus their attention on the decoy, allowing players to operate unseen.

Several new structure variants support this approach, including stealth mainframes and stealth utility buildings. Contraband jammers and visibility mechanics now interact with this system to determine how exposed the player’s true base is.

Grey Goo and Network Collapse Scenarios

Some choices in the prologue result in a mini grey goo event. The player’s single tower is replaced with roughly 16 scattered secondary towers. This unexpected outcome offers a unique springboard into chapter one and includes new achievements and lore implications.

New City Styles

Three new city layouts are now available:

Militarized Narrows introduces long sightlines and military infrastructure
Wealthy features large suburban zones and dense vertical development
Disparate Narrows blends rich and poor areas with long travel times and strategic positioning challenges

Each style changes how players interact with the environment, plan expansion, and engage threats.

Upgrade and Unlock Flow Redesign

The previous upgrade system has been removed. In its place is a faster and more readable task-based interface.

Upgrade choices now appear in the task stack
Selections resolve immediately
Grouping by domain helps clarify upgrades during busy phases

This new system keeps pace smoothly and reduces visual clutter, particularly when multiple unlocks trigger in quick succession.

Vorsiber’s Presence

Vorsiber is no longer a background detail in the opening hours. From the start, their presence is felt—whether you engage with them directly or not.

They monitor your progress
They test your responses
They offer rewards or condescension, depending on the situation

For the first time, their internal divisions are visible. Upper management operates with personal goals that don’t always align with the Vorsiber organization at large. What used to be implied through handbook entries or delayed exposition is now introduced through direct interaction, giving players an early glimpse at the city’s real power structure.

Hostile Manifesto Path

Declaring independence brings a strong response. Vorsiber destroys your infrastructure and censors your message. Then they hand you a new NanoSeed and a nuclear device—not as a reward, but as a reminder of who still controls the city.

This path doesn’t grant power but perspective. It reframes the scale of the game’s central conflict and highlights just how far the player must go to truly challenge their adversaries.

Achievements and Optional Routes

Multiple new achievements are now tied to specific routes through the prologue. These include stealth completions, alternate network setups, syndicate involvement, and failed resistance. They offer thematic recognition without pressuring players into specific behaviors.

The Machine Shifts

From the first decision, the game now reflects its core intent: freedom of action, meaningful consequences, and reactive systems. The prologue is no longer a prelude. It is the beginning of your story.

Guides to Tame the Machine

Even the most brilliant mind needs guidance when faced with a system as vast as this one. To help you navigate, we’ve pinned two essential resources from the Heart of the Machine wiki:

New Minds, Start Here

For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

Connect with the Machine

Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2001070/view/502822010104053992
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/524212840420081803
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/521959859806013753