A smaller update is now live on Steam and Epic.

A key element is the use of pre-generated player and staff images. Due to an in-game toggle not functioning as intended in previous builds, we've revised our approach as detailed in the changelist below. These changes give you greater control over how these images are displayed in FM26, especially important on lower-end devices which was the intention.

We understand though that this lead to confusion, with some believing that all Newgen faces in the game are pre-determined. We want to emphasize that this is not the case – but through our adjustments you now have the ability to choose between pre-generated and dynamically generated player and staff images, granting you full control over these settings.

As well as the above, we’ve managed to push several other fixes as part of this update which can be seen in the full changelist below:

• Fixed an issue affecting the preference to show pictures of players and staff generated by the game.
  
• Added a preference to switch between pre-generated or dynamically-generated player and staff images, improving performance options for lower-end hardware
  
• Further fixes to matches freezing in single career
  
• Various stability fixes
  
• Updated translations

Happy pumpkin-smashing day, folks 🎃💥

Today we smash pumpkins — with style.

The next Celtreos patch is live!

On mobile, this setting changes the behavior of touches so that the initial touch is ignored and any subsequent finger movements are relative to that point.  This emulates the behavior of some other games, which may be more familiar for some people.

Tweaks to in-game performance continue, to try to achieve the best possible frame rates!

Fixed a localization issue that could cause text to overrun in the trophy display.  Minor updates to the app icon.  Minor tweaks to certain text spacing in the UI, as well as shadow effects.  Minor changes to a couple of in-game animations.

Greetings Commanders! We are releasing hotfix 1.0.4.1 for The Outer Worlds 2. As always, we are very appreciative for your continued support and patience.

If you come across any other issues, please contact us via our Issue Tracker page. The Earth Directorate thanks you.

• Fixing saves crashing on load 100% of the time if bad data gets into the favorited item data.

• Fixed several rare crashes.

• (PS5 only) Fixed crash when game was started with only PlayGo chunk installed, and user progressed past Horizon point station.

• Plug Puller Perk no longer prevents encounters from advancing.

• Players will no longer have their conversation history reset at unexpected times during gameplay.

• Cleared out portions of the map will no longer be reset.

• Players who encountered problems with Inez after meeting her at the Ministry of Accuracy should be able to progress her argument with Milverstreet now, even if they could not before.

• Inez will now reliably play her intro dialogue lines when first encountering her in the Ministry of Accuracy, instead of on rare occasions playing her standard companion conversation.

• (SPOILER) Aza now properly starts a dialog and quest outside of the N-Ray Range if the player already killed all the cultists at the N-Ray range.

• OA Troopers no longer appear in the ACHQ at an unintended time. Loading a save from before fighting these units will allow players to progress the quest as intended.

  • Note: Players must load a save before the bug occurred. We are investigating solutions for a retroactive fix.

• (SPOILER) “Better than Nature” quest now correctly guides the player to Inez if Fairfield is destroyed.

• Otto’s Lock in Free Market Station is now working as intended and can be solved.

• PS5 Pro now uses TSR for upscaling to address blurry grass on Paradise Island and unexpected lighting noise across the game.

• Double jump boots no longer play audio at double volume.

• (Xbox only) Fixed an issue that can cause some blue noise on the edges of grass and computer monitors.

- Added a "Trial" button to the character list menu.
- Added the ability to switch characters by pressing the left and right keys on the character status screen.
- Fixed a bug where performing a downward attack would cause you to fall through the floor.

Hey Divers, First off: thank you again for diving into Beneath, playing, streaming, sharing your experiences, and helping us uncover what works - and what doesn’t. As a two‑person studio, we’re deeply committed to making this game as smooth and scary as possible. Below is a breakdown of the main bugs that will be fixed with this patch.

• Fixed arms clipping in some animations.

• Fixed the issue that allowed gunfire from the running position.

• Fixed the issue that allowed gunfire right after closing the inventory, before the weapon was visible.

• Fixed a couple of missing collisions.

• Fixed the issue where some players were stuck just after meeting Nicole and grabbing the handgun.

• Decreased the shadow opacity (so it's not pure black).

• Fixed the issue where the safe code wasn't displaying correctly in a computer in Shirazi Station

What Else We’re Doing

• We’re already working on further patches targeting the other bugs reported.

• Visual asset enhancements and optimization work are ongoing; we'll roll out these gradually.

• We’re reading all your feedback (forums, reviews, streams) and prioritizing issues based on severity and frequency.

About Micro Stutters

We've had some reports of people playing on 4k resolution monitors with high refresh rates (120hz and above) encountering performance issues. This is something we are looking into and testing across various monitors and configurations to identify the cause. Whilst we look into this, we ask that anyone experiencing these issues please drop a comment in our bug section of steam forums with your GPU, CPU, and type of drive you have Beneath installed on so we can get as many variations confirmed of people encountering this (especially important if you are NOT running 4k or above 60fps) Thank you for your patience whilst we investigate this, we'll be updating you all as soon as we have some conclusive updates!

 

Thank You & Stay In Touch

Your feedback is invaluable. Every bug report, screenshot, clip, review and stream helps us make Beneath better. If you encounter something not listed above, please drop it in our Steam Discussions or share a ticket with specs, reproduction steps, etc. We’re committed to supporting this game long‑term, improving the experience, and making the depths you explore feel immersive, stable and scary.

Thanks for playing, thanks for diving deep, and thanks for helping us fix the rough edges.

In today’s update, we’ve added new characters to the email events!
Previous events are now mixed with messages from special clients you might recognize from POI locations and upcoming titles. These clients will send you email requests for specific vehicles with defined technical and visual conditions.

• Added protection against unloading vehicles from the upper deck without lowering it first
  
• Visual improvements in the player’s office at level 3
  
• Fixed scaling issues with the email app
  
• Fixed floating vehicles in the mechanical repair zone

In the meantime, we invite you to check out the forum thread where we gather your feedback and ideas for future updates:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2404880/discussions/0/604157805816993720/



PS. Have you seen the upcoming game from the universe - Car Rental Simulator?
Make sure to check out its store page - we’ll reveal some progress over the weekend!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2242340/Car_Rental_Simulator

Trick or treat, everyone - we’ve prepared some wallpapers for you this Halloween!

To celebrate the spooky season, we’ve released a free wallpaper pack featuring the girls from Carnal Contract in their most mysterious (and tempting) Halloween looks.

Each wallpaper is crafted in high quality - 4K.

You can download them in 4k on our Google Drive, here.

Join our Discord community to unlock special content: exclusive renders, custom-made artwork, wallpapers, and images you won’t find anywhere else.

-Dotty

Did you know that dark fantasy is basically horror fantasy?
And thus Halloween is a good opportunity to announce the writer for Witchfire, Nick Adderley. If we were into official press releases, this one would go like this…

Nick Adderley is a US-based writer with a particular passion for interactive narratives, born from a lifetime of immersion in tabletop RPGs and gaming series such as BioShock, The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout. This combined with a love of antique literature have led to an artistic voice that seeks rich depth with a sheen of modern polish, expressed in prose, script and even verse.

Mr. Adderley has worked remotely on titles such as Fallout: Miami and Ken Levine’s Judas; today, he is honored to announce that he has also been chosen to write with the talented Astronauts for Witchfire.

He currently lives in North Carolina, with his beautiful wife and two daughters.

But we’re not like that, so let’s just say that Nick is bringing both talent and wisdom to Witchfire.

We were looking for someone who can add depth to our world and its story but is also unafraid to reach where creators often fear to reach.

You’ll see soon enough.

Meanwhile, here’s a Witchfire short story that Nick wrote - one to give you an idea of the kind of world our hero lives in…



by Nick Adderley

The Marcynian Forest, the Black Woods of Germania, had been swallowed for years in an unnatural night. Clouds that had never broken even in a peal of lightning bled over it continually, a freezing, reeking, pestilential rain that soaked into the trees and dripped from their branches like needles. The trunks were narrow black spears that pinned a carpet of thick, curling vapour to the forest floor – an ethereal, tranquil cloudscape, on which, in mad contradiction, the impenetrable woodland rested. As Albrecht marched, his eyes downturned and his hair dripping frigid, stinking rain, even his own feet were hidden by the churning smoke.

The troop train entire was bent double – stumbling more than marching, their hands on the back of the man in front, blind with exhaustion. They hacked and coughed, because they were too weary to speak, trying to expel the rancid smoke from their lungs; the man to Albrecht’s left hadn’t stopped wheezing and retching for hours, and now, as he trudged, Albrecht prayed God would give him the strength to kill the man, to shut him up. But the strength didn’t come – he trudged on, and the man kept heaving and coughing.

Others in the train would succumb to it, finally falling into blessed silence and keeling over into the mist: off the path if they were on the edge of the column, in the middle if they weren’t. You couldn’t see them through the smoke, after that – you’d only know you’d reached one when your feet struck them, instead of crackling in the hoarfrosty mud. If they were fresh, they’d moan. If they’d been from far up in the column, they wouldn’t. Albrecht silently begged for the man on his left to give up, to breathe the plague-rain deep; he was on the outside edge of the column. He’d roll into the black undergrowth and wouldn’t be a bother to anybody. But there he was, hacking, heaving…still.

Someone screamed far ahead in the line. Several someones. The column was too tired to stop.

At the end of this train, God only knew how many miles ahead, Folcmar was waiting. Albrecht’s father had been stabbed while thieving plague-corpses, his sister had rotted alive on the other side of her door, whispering to Albrecht not to come in, not to catch it. Ironically, his brother had been saved by the levy: now that Roma Borealis was dead, how much worse could it be, hunting witches with Folcmar? The man to his left coughed and spat.

He’d been warned – “Beware the Coven of Abnoba,” they’d whispered, “Old German magic – it’s not like any of the sieges you’ve seen.” Albrecht didn’t care. Being gored on a pike or consumed by pox, either was better with his brother than alone. The man to his left guttered in his throat.

The column stirred in front of them, splitting around the center of the path like a stream around a rock. A captain was guiding them, motioning, exhausted. “A pit, there’s a pit in the path, go around, go around.”

Albrecht raised his head to look as he approached it. The borders of the pit could only be guessed by the splitting train, but one indicator showed in the center; it rose like the mast of a ship gored on rocks, piercing the fog to show only a few inches: the sharpened point of a beechwood stake, glistening red. He wondered if the ones who’d screamed earlier were the ones who’d fallen in, or the ones who’d watched. Perhaps both…one who’d seen, and realized too late that he was tipping. Albrecht’s imagination was caught morbidly by the idea – the sensation of the mud slipping from under your boots, trying to seize onto your neighbors as the row in front of you vanished, leaving only that red smear.

A call came down the line, echoed wearily from mouth to mouth – Halt the column. They bumped into each other, sagging wearily in place. The pit yawned on Albrecht’s right hand. The man to his left gagged as bile welled up in his mouth, and drooled it out over his invisible boots. The reek washed over Albrecht with the breeze.

It would be easy, he thought. The rows behind and ahead of him would probably be grateful for the silence. The captain would be too tired to discipline him. The man coughed again, tried to clear a raw throat, and Albrecht grabbed his shoulder. Then he paused.

Beyond the path, just where the top of the mist met the brush, there were points of light, like red candle flames. Two of them. Then innumerable points. Piercing the darkness all up and down the woods, in close-set pairs. The undergrowth breathed, a thousand rattling breaths through a thousand rotten lungs, a remembered ritual of the living, aped by the dead.

As they rose, they were fat, bloated to bursting with all the fetid diseases of the hell-fog; the armor of the Church Militant hung in fragments from buckles that cut into their morbid flesh, and spears or bayonets rusted in their engorged hands. They closed on the column like wolf jaws, from both sides at once – Albrecht unslung his rifle and butted the man to his left into their charge. Whatever came next, he’d had his revenge. The man stuck on a pike, weighing it to the ground; and the witchspawn dropped the weapon, falling on Albrecht with flailing arms.

It was heavy – the weight crushed Albrecht into the mist on the ground, as it snapped for his throat. The graveyard stink watered his eyes, but he twisted in the crackling mud, heaving the grotesque thing into the pit in the middle of the path. It yelled like a man.

Albrecht scrambled to his knees, fumbling through the mist as he hacked and spat out black water. At last his fingers closed on his musket and bayonet, and he rose, watching the pit.

The column was in ruins. Some fled the path into the black woods, to be slain by reserves of the Coven’s army. There would be no survivors. A scratching and scrabbling came from the pit, and the smoke over it roiled. Still racked with coughing, Albrecht shouldered the musket.

He pulled the trigger the second he saw the moldering hand emerge; with a quiet click. The powder was wet. The face reared out of the cloud, and Albrecht froze as he saw it with terrible clarity for the first time.

It surged up and caught his arms, hauling him back to the pit. The rifle slipped out of his fingers into the mist, and Albrecht knew his search was at an end, that he wasn’t dying alone. He had found his brother.

Hello everyone,

It’s been just a week since Dark Hours 1.0 launched, and what a week it’s been! I’ll probably come back to that in more detail in a special dev log coming soon, to give you a clearer picture of everything that’s been going on behind the scenes.

In the meantime, thank you so much for all your feedback, reports, and support since launch. We’ve been working hard over the past week to fix the most urgent issues, and and today here we are, bringing you our first regular update since 1.0.

This one focuses on improving your experience by addressing several of the biggest issues you’ve been reporting, community requests, and a bit of balancing.

As many of you probably noticed, our major issue at launch was related to voice chat, lobbies, and game crashes. We’re really sorry that you had to deal with these problems during your games.

Over the past few days, we’ve been in constant contact with Epic Games support to track down the root of the problem, and we finally found a proper technical solution yesterday! (more details about that will be shared in the upcoming dev log.)

The most important thing: these major issues should now be fixed with this patch.

Note: For the microphone, we recommend checking your settings to make sure the detection threshold is properly adjusted. We usually keep it set between 90% and 100% internally, but you may need to tweak it depending on your setup. The default value will be reajusted on a future patch.

As some of our early access players know, items purchased in the shop and used during a mission couldn’t be recovered afterward — they simply disappeared once the heist was over.

For version 1.0, the gameloop was reworked with the new heist night formats and contract selection, and we announced that items could be reused from mission to mission. Well… for reasons (related to the point just above), that wasn’t actually the case until now. Oops. But that’s fixed!

From now on, any items you buy in the shop, use during a heist, and still have in your backpack at the end of the mission will stay with you when you return to the lobby. You’ll be able to sell them, transfer them to your locker, keep them for your next job, or even give them to your teammates.

⚠️ Note: items that are already available in the lobby or the van, (as well as those looted during a heist, cannot be resold.)

This is something we really wanted to have ready for release, but the launch schedule was... intense. 😅

So, surprise! Vans now feature custom interiors when you start a heist.

Here are a few screenshots so you can check out their new looks! Which one is your favorite?

[carousel autoadvance="true"][/carousel]

Another good news, we heard you. We’ve rebalanced item prices across the board. You’ll find the full list of changes in the patch notes below. Tell us which items you’re enjoying most!

You can also move items back to your locker and sell them, and for a limited time, you can sell them for 100% of their purchase price. Don’t miss out!

We’ve also fixed a bunch of other bugs, you can find the complete patchnote below for a more detailed overview. Please let us know if you still run into any issues, we’re keeping an eye on it and will continue to monitor reports closely.

We can’t thank you enough for your patience, understanding, and all the feedback you’ve shared since launch. We know there are still bugs and improvements to tackle, and we’re doing our best to address them as quickly as possible.

Have a great day!

Raven

🔔 Stay updated on all things Dark Hours:

Discord Tiktok Bluesky Twitter Instagram

Or contact us at https://contact@darkhours-thegame.com

• Monster Navigation Fix: Fixed an issue where monster could sometimes get stuck due to its navigation mesh.

• Trickster Demon TP Fix: Fixed an issue where the Trickster could grab and teleport players to unintended upper floors.

• Driftborn Aspiration Fix: Fixed an issue where the Driftborn’s aspiration VFX would never stop playing.

• Blind Ghoul Turnaround Fix: Fixed an issue where the Blind Ghoul would only move back and forth within the same room.

• Voltaic Wraith Electrocution: Fixed a bug where the electrocution effect could persist indefinitely on the player.

• Taser Gun Fix: Fixed a bug where the taser gun did not properly kill a player being electrocuted.

• Earmuffs Not Visible Fix: Fixed an issue where other players couldn’t see the host’s equipped earmuffs.

• Stay Salty Achievement Fix: Fixed a bug where the “Stay Salty” achievement could be unlocked by players other than the one performing the action, which was not intended.

• Airborne Voltage Achievement Fix: Fixed a bug where the unlock conditions for the achievement were not properly enforced, making it far too easy to obtain.

• Urban Legend Fix: Fixed a bug where the Urban Legend achievement was not correctly awarded to players.

• Welcome to the Nightmare Fix: Fixed a bug where the "Welcome to the Nightmare" wasn't correctly awarded to players.

• Microphone Fix: Fixed a bug where some players could not hear or be heard by anyone during a game.

• Voice Desync Fix: Fixed a bug where players’ voices could become out of sync while speaking.

• Van Interior NEW: Every van customization now features a unique interior scene that you appear in before starting a heist.

• Online Connection Bug: Fixed a bug that prevented players from creating or joining a lobby.

• Mafia End Screen Crashes Fix: Fixed different crashes that could occur when a player reached the Mafia Boss end screen.

• Difficulty Rewards Multipliers Mod: Adjusted the multipliers applied to rewards based on the chosen difficulty.

• Rarity Contract Mod: The Legendary difficulty now increases your current heist’s difficulty by one level.

• Gameplay Items in Van Mod: Gameplay items are now available in the van depending on the selected difficulty.

• Shop Price Equipment Items Mod: Adjusted the prices of all purchasable equipment items in the shop.

• Van & Lobby Items Fix: Fixed an issue where items from the lobby or the van could not be placed back in locker.

• Teambag End Screen Fix: Fixed a bug where the teambag appeared full on the end screen even when it was actually empty.

• Heist Night Timer Fix: Fixed a bug where the Heist Night timer could go into negative values.

• Equipment Items Between Heists Fix: Fixed a bug where equipped items were not retained between heists.

• Equipment Items Durability in Locker Fix: Fixed a bug where item durability bars were not correctly displayed in the locker.

• Item Selling Fix: Fixed a bug where duplicate items in the locker were sometimes sold in pairs instead of individually.

• Locker Storing Item Fix: Fixed a bug where it was not possible to place items back into the locker.

• Anti-Aliasing Setting Added: Added an option to choose your preferred anti-aliasing method in-game.

• HUD Update: The text has been scaled up again, and the main objective is now more prominently displayed than the secondary objectives.

• HUD Checkbox for Objectives Mod: Checkboxes are now filled with a cross to improve readability.

• Extinguisher Rocket Fix: Fixed an issue where players could stay in rocket mode indefinitely and move freely.

• Van Wheels Fix: Corrected an issue where the van’s wheels remained motionless in the intro cinematic.

• Wheelboard Breaks Fix: Corrected the break notification so it no longer references the "Shield Mirror" incorrectly.

• Shop Item Slot Mod: Mafia icons are now displayed behind items that can be unlocked through mafia reputation.

• Bosses Dialog NEW: Mafia bosses now have their own dialogue at the end of a heist, along with their names displayed.

• Teleporter VFX Fix: Fixed a bug where the teleporter pad VFX appeared in the wrong location if the teleporter had been moved.

• Durability Items Locker Fix: Fixed a bug where items taken from the locker appeared with an empty durability bar.

• Linked Items Feedback NEW: Items from the lobby and vans are now linked and can no longer be resold.

• Equipment Between Heist Fix: Your equipment is now properly saved between each heist. Returning to the lobby also keeps your gear.

• Item Price Balancing

  • Adrenaline: 50 => 150

  • Orange Adrenaline: 625 => 300

  • Adrenaline Splash: 925 => 500

  • Adrenaline Gun: 750 = 750

  • Plunger: 5 => 125

  • Frying Pan: 1250 => 490

  • Crowbar: 750 => 350

  • Truncheon: 1500 => 650

  • Stun Baton: 2250 => 1500

  • Defibrillator: 3000 => 2900

  • Defibrillator Auto Recharge: 4500 => 3990

  • Flare: 100 => 60

  • Flare Gun: 975 => 190

  • Flash Grenade: 1025 => 800

  • Salt Grenade: 400 => 500

  • Ice Grenade: 1025 => 800

  • EMF Holy Grenade: 3000 => 1500

  • Hacking Device: 500 => 500

  • Camera Hacking Device: 2500 => 3490

  • Control Hacking Device: 3000 => 4000

  • Hair Dryer: 250 => 90

  • Hair Dryer Pro: 300 => 190

  • Fog Horn: 300 => 1100

  • Vuvuzela: 500 => 1300

  • Air Horn: 975 => 1900

  • Single Photo Camera: 100 => 200

  • Instant Camera: 400 => 800

  • Mega Flash Instant Camera: 1300 => 1500

  • Light Stick: 20 => 40

  • Long Light Stick: 80 => 50

  • Latex Balloon: 1 => 1

  • Salt: 100 => 190

  • Noise Cancelling Headset: 300 => 600

  • Wheel board: 1625 => 800

  • Teleporter: 12000 => 20000

  • Rubber Chicken: 150 => 125

  • Rubber Rooster: 400 => 175

  • Mini-Taser: 500 => 700

  • Taser: 750 => 1200

  • Taser Auto Recharge: 3750 => 2150

  • Stun Gun: 3000 => 3250

  • High-Capacity Taser: 1000 => 3000

  • Single Dart Tranquilizer Gun: 300 => 150

  • Tranquilizer Gun: 400 => 1250

  • Tranquilizer Minigun: 3250 => 4900

  • Walkie-Talkie Limited Range: 450 => 200

  • Walkie-Talkie Unlimited Range: 1100 => 800

  • Walkie-Talkie POD: 2000 => 1800

  • Walkie-Talkie Entity: 2625 => 2250

  • Walkie-Talkie Item Scan: 2625 => 3500

  • GPS Walkie-Talkie: 3375 => 5000

  • Water Gun: 700 => 250

  • Large Tank Water Gun: 1100 => 450

  • Water Minigun: 1250 => 1300

Known bug: Bug reports received on Steam forums and Discord are currently processed by the dev team and will be fixed by priority in the following days