This week, our entire team is focusing on addressing the game's bugs.

• Blocking item swaps during the Scream Wave ability.
  
• Reworking the character to prevent the head from clipping through walls.
  
• Fixing the occasional slowdown of attacks when playing as the alien.
  
• Addressing FPS drops when experiencing high ping.
  
• Fixing various exploits such as rapid movement, alien attack spamming, etc.
  
• Allowing random players to fill in squads when the "Fill" box is checked.
  
• Improving animations and fixing animation-related bugs.
  
• Enhancing the game's rendering to make it more visually comfortable. We are also exploring a solution to make gameplay feel the same with and without Lumen (this may take some time).
  

A word from the Dev Team

Hi community, we won’t be doing an event this week as we’ve shifted our focus on fixing issues.
We’ll be back with a new event and a new item next week! Have a great weekend!

General Changes

• Temporarily reverted blackout music change, we’ll think how to improve that later on;
  
• Minor UI improvements;
  

Merc Changes

• Flashlights are off by default when selecting them through quickslots;
  
• Temporarily removed two melee (fists) animations that allowed clipping through walls to interact with boxes;
  
• Reduced Speed Syringe duration from 120 to 60 seconds;
  
• Increased price for health syringes to 2800 (3 syringes in starter kit remains unchanged);
  
• Increased price of 7.62mm and 7.62mm NATO ammo by 50%;
  
• Fixed a few issues with incendiary grenades;
  

Alien Changes

• Reverted heal change that reduced the healing effectiveness by 30%;
  
• Removed spread from Slime Spit (it now hits where you aim, holding will improve distance);
  
• Reduced Alien stagger time after breaking invisibility from 4 to 2 seconds;
  
• Reduced flare’s max damage in melee range by 10% (damage at longer range than a meter is not affected);
  
• Introduced light stacking damage limit, so that light DPS does not go beyond max damage received from one flare in melee;
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue with Switcher distance being lower then intended;
  
• Fixed an issue with Caves of Turion spawners where players could spawn in locked rooms;
  
• Fixed an issue where Tutorial could not be skipped when in matchmaking;
  
• Fixed the Who Wants To Be A Mercenary achievement so it now correctly completes on 1,000,000 credits;
  

UPDATE 0.5.0

Animation Improvements

• Animations have been improved across the board to provide better visual feedback;
  
• Holomap no longer shakes in hands;
  
• Devices no longer shake in hands (removed idle sway);
  
• Jump animations allow shooting better precision while shooting;
  
• Weapon sway animations are improved depending on weapon weight;
  
• Better blend for crouch animations;
  
• Smoothed up third-person animations with weapons;
  
• Straightened weapon aim tilt.
  

Quick Swap

New Weapons

• TRYZUB bullpup semi-auto assault rifle
  
  
• 7.62 NATO SKAR-R
  
  
• Incendiary grenade
  
  
• Smoke grenade
  
  

New Syringes

• Sprint Speed (temporarily boosts running speed)
  
  
• Load Capacity (temporarily increases load capacity, which means your stamina bar won’t be cut)
  
  
• Temporary Poison Resistance
  
  
• Passive Healing (a slower and cheaper version of the Instant Heal Syringe, this one heals you over time)
  
  

Rewards for Killing Alien Monsters

Improved Tutorials

Limited-Time Cosmetics

- MERCS -

- ALIEN MONSTERS -

Other Changes

• Improved spawners on both maps for squads to spawn further away;
  
• Improved aliens hit registration;
  
• New Alien UI in the lobby—abilities have video previews now.
  
• In solo mode, main elevators can only extract one merc at a time.
  
• Cheater Report Reward - players whose report will lead to a successful ban of a cheater will receive a compensation reward;
  
• Added ammo and weapon attachment sounds;
  
• Added a media player to the main menu where players can select tracks/randomize, etc;
  
• Added 3 new ambient tracks to the main menu.
  

Greetings, Mercs and Those Who Lurk in Shadows

Premiering now:

// INCOMING MESSAGE //

• Gather basic loot.
  
• Sell it to ANY TRADER for REP and CASH.
  

A Word from the Dev Team

Hi, community,

We’re committed to making the aliens versus mercs interactions feel difficult but fun and fair, and we’ve been doing steady changes, testing out new combat styles for aliens and other balance changes. With the patch this week, we’re making an overhaul to how alien works, removing unnecessary energy requirements for skills but balancing that out with shared cooldowns for strong combos like EMP and Scream Wave and introducing longer cooldowns on respawn to send aliens back after their death, giving mercs time to breathe. We’re also redesigning how lights/weapons do damage to aliens to allow players to use all tools at their disposal for the fight and give both sides a bit more time to react to the opponent's actions.

Merc Changes

• Added a short delay between toggling flashlights on and off;
  
• Mercs can now only have one light-emitting device (flashlight/UV Lamp) in quick slots;
  
• Reduced tactical flashlight damage from 30 to 15;
  
• Improved visibility with tactical flashlight;
  
• FoxFive and G-17 have an additional 3 damage modifier per bullet;
  
• [Developer’s note: we’re currently working on rebalancing the damage values of guns to have damage modifiers over bullets to be able to better balance gunfire damage against both mercs and aliens, lowering the spread of DPS between different weapons against aliens]
  

Alien Changes

• Aliens no longer need energy to use Slime Spit, Egg Trap, EMP, Scream Wave, Gas Cloud, and Scan;
  
• EMP and Scream Wave now have a shared cooldown of 5 seconds (using one skill causes the second one to go onto a 5 seconds cooldown);
  
• Aliens now have separate respawn cooldowns that are higher than on-use cooldowns;
  
• Acid Cloud now has 100 seconds cooldown on respawn (44 seconds regular cooldown - unchanged);
  
• EMP and Scream Wave now have 120 seconds cooldown on respawn and 60 seconds cooldown on use;
  
• Scan now has 180 seconds cooldown on respawn and 120 seconds cooldown on use;
  
• Slime Spit now has a 30 seconds cooldown on respawn (regular cooldown of 25 seconds unchanged);
  
• Egg Trap now has 40 seconds cooldown on respawn (regular cooldown of 30 seconds unchanged);
  
• Reduced Egg Trap Activation time to 2 seconds;
  
• Eggs now also reduce cooldowns when consumed (5 to 15 seconds, depending on the size);
  
• Updated UI: Circle around the skill now shows the remaining cooldown of the skill and added a visual sign that EMP & Scream Wave cooldowns are connected;
  
• Alien gun resistance has been lowered from 80% to 70%;
  
• Alien light resistance has been increased by 15%;
  
• Scream Wave debuff has been reduced to 1/2/3 seconds depending on the amount of mercs affected;
  
• Aliens have 10 energy on respawn;
  
• Heal energy cost has been doubled;
  
• Energy regeneration has been lowered by 30%;
  
• Alien attack damage has been reduced from 17 to 15;
  
• Incoming light damage has been adjusted further to match the visual outlines of visible light;
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue when aliens' attack speed debuff was stuck for the whole match and did not correctly drop off after moving away from the light’s source;
  
• Resolution scale slider is now unavailable to change visually when DLSS is on;
  
• Fixed an issue that allowed stacking ammo into one magazine through dead bodies.
  

🛠️ PATCH NOTES & WHAT’S IN STORE 🛠️

General Changes

• 📌 New Experimental Solo Queue Mode: You can now choose between Solo or Squad when queuing up for a map.
  
• 📌 Solo mode is a 9v1 challenge on the same maps.
  
• 📌 Squad mode stays the same, but solo players queuing up in squads will now earn a 30% currency bonus when extracting.
  
• 📌 Fill in mode from squad play is temporarily removed.
  

Weekend Event

• 📌 During this weekend, enjoy a +30% XP boost on both alien and merc accounts.
  

Merc Changes

• Replaced Nail gun with a Fox Five pistol in the starting kit.
  
• New players will now get extraction tools for the Research Facility map on their first 5 matches.
  
• Improved the movement for mercs - we’ve identified and were able to fix character twitches that could happen when going in/out of sprint or suddenly stopping.
  
• Added report cheat button on merc’s death screen (prior to final screen).
  
• Melee weapons won’t instakill players without knocking them first.
  
• Improved visibility of player’s level on their dog tags.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Backup Power Device contract - it should now spawn properly.
  

Alien Changes

• Egg Traps can now be placed near mercs, but take 3 seconds to “activate” before it can be triggered.
  
• If one of the aliens leaves the game or is disconnected, the other aliens respawn timer is reduced by 50%.
  
• Fixed most of the cases where aliens were getting light damage through walls.
  
• Increased radius at which aliens can charge from wires.
  
• Corrected visual and actual light damage zones to be the same size, so aliens can better see when they’ll start getting damage from merc’s light sources.
  
• Added a feedback sound when the alien's energy is drained while under the effect of light in invisibility.
  

Other Changes

• Fixed several previously bugged Steam achievements.
  
• Added unique sounds for solo elevator doors on Caves of Turion.
  
• Added unique sounds to warehouse internal room doors on Research Facility.
  
• Increased volume of warehouse door siren on Caves of Turion.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that allowed aliens to place eggs on the ceiling in certain areas, including the ice corridor in the Research Facility.
  
• Fixed an issue with flash drive disappearing from the map when it’s carrier has been killed.
  
• Fixed an issue with aliens getting the burning sound stuck when turning invisible.
  
• Fixed an issue with aliens getting visual effects of burn stuck on character after stopping getting the light damage.
  
• Fixed an issue where aliens could spawn with active invisibility skill.
  
• Fixed an issue preventing mutants in warehouses to spit with acid.
  
• Minor tooltip fixes for medkit stations.
  

// INCOMING MESSAGE //

RESEARCH FACILITY

CAVES OF TURION

Merc Changes

• Flashlight running out of battery now has visual feedback on UI;
  
• Dog tags now also store the nickname of the owner's killer;
  
• Added the amount of reputation that an item will grant when sold to the item’s tooltip;
  
• Increased reputation gains for all sorts of items and contracts by around 50%;
  
• Reduced the cost of Caves of Turion extraction tools (Grappling Hook and Big Drill Card) by around 90% (reverted change from the last week).
  

Alien Changes

• EMP duration now depends on the number of humans affected similar to Scream Wave. Duration is 3/5/7 seconds, charge reduction is 30/40/50% of battery based on the number of targets hit (1/2/3+);
  
• Aliens on Caves of Turion have more energy when spawning;
  
• Improved visual feedback on UI when using skills or when aliens are unable to use skills due to GCD/stagger/not enough energy;
  
• Added an option to change Alien Vision to Toggle in settings.
  

Other Changes

• Preparations for the Weekend Event;
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused an unexpected short delay when shooting with pistols;
  
• Flamethrowers can no longer be put in safe slots;
  
• Fixed an issue where Aliens on Caves of Turion could not see the Elevator being called through Alien Vision;
  
• Fixed several server crashes;
  
• Fixed several client-based crashes related to monsters and UI;
  
• Fixed an issue with flashtrap sound missing;
  
• Fixed an issue where visual feedback for healing through first aid kits would be missing.
  

Hey, community,

• 📌We're putting in some serious work to beef up our anti-cheat system. First, we'll be rolling out a feature that will ban offenders automatically.
  
• 📌We've also got some sneaky tricks up our sleeves to catch cheaters in the act. I can't spill the details, but you should definitely notice the difference once we've implemented them.
  
• 📌Last but not least, we're cooking up a more extensive, complex solution that should make a real impact. We can't reveal everything just yet but expect to see these changes drop within a week or two.