Population Zero

• Exclusive Twitch-themed Helmet and Banner
  
• Twitch Survivalist Pack with resources, medkits and other items that will greatly increase your chances of survival in the early game
  
• Twitch Warrior Pack with weapons, pieces of armor and other items that will improve your combat capabilities
  

• input you Steam login at https://pzonline.com/login
  
• link your Twitch profile in the TWITCH DROPS section
  
• watch Population Zero streams on Twitch
  

UI

1. A special UI-element for dropping unnecessary items has been added to the inventory screen
   
2. The pop-up menu with interactive buttons accessed with the right mouse click has been removed from the container screen
   

Visuals

1. Terrain color correction
   
2. Outcast’s Reinforced Suit has been reskinned for both male and female character models
   

Various Fixes

1. Fixed an issue:
   
   
   
   • that led to an item near the character outline in the inventory menu becoming blocked
     
   • that made a side quest become tracked in the quest log and on the game screen after a subsequent server login. Now, a random main quest is tracked in this quest
     
   • that could significantly move the quest counters to the right from the left side of the game screen
     
   • that prevented the player from taking an item from an item slot in a workstation menu by clicking “Take”
     
   
   
2. The freezes of injury status effects have been fixed
   
3. The sliding effect of the character’s legs while moving has been fixed
   
4. The timer of timed injuries in the status effect description has been fixed
   
5. The stacking of items from a workstation when drag-and-dropping into inventory slots has been fixed
   
6. Session termination upon void’s life expiry when the player is offline has been fixed
   

Gameplay

1. Temperature and thirst protection system has been reworked:
   
   
   
   • Heat and cold damage has been changed from 5 points per second to 20 points per 4 seconds
     
   • In order to craft Thermal Suit the player has to use Concentrated Blue Essence instead of Thick Swamp Mixture
     
   • Thermal Suit adds -75 degrees to the initial minimum comfort temperature
     
   • Warming Meat Stew adds - 50 degrees to the initial minimum comfort temperature
     
   • Desert Suit adds +30 degrees to the initial maximum comfort temperature
     
   • Adhesion Heat-resistant Suit adds +70 degrees to the initial maximum comfort temperature
     
   
   
2. In Outcasts’ camp, players can now find secret stashes with loot that depends on the difficulty of a given camp. Players can get various resources, consumables, and pieces of unique gear: suits and armor
   
3. Alpha Kvar, Sahrim and Snow Sahrim now drop unique resources required to craft new weapon types: Deadly Glaive, Beast Hunter Glaive
   
4. Mobs that inhabit Red Moss and the Hub area will sometimes drop a new weapon - Silicon Axe
   
5. In order to upgrade the Hub storage and acquire the maximum number of item slots at the Banker’s players have to complete several new quests. The quests become available upon interaction with the Banker
   
6. When mining resources with an incorrect tool, players now get a pop-up notification
   
7. Now, when players voluntarily finish a session and return to that server (for instance, by accepting a friend’s invite), the game checks if the player had items from one the founder packs upon exiting the session. Supposedly, this measure will solve the abuse of the founder packs (item duplication)
   
8. When not in battle, the character is in the permanent auto-run mode
   

Perks

1. The old perks have been rebalanced, some of the perks have been deleted
   
2. New perks have been added
   
3. New unique perks have been added that can be acquired for:
   
   
   
   • performing game activities (resource gathering, crafting, fighting mobs) in Desert, Swamp, and Anomalous Region
     
   • achieving victory in battles against mini-bosses: Alpha Kvar, Sahrim, Snow Sahrim
     
   • killing Voids (NPCs)
     
   
   

The Game World

1. The global map has received new terrain
   
2. New assets have been added: vines, polyps, and icicles
   
3. Geysers in the Anomalous region have been updated with new assets
   
4. Hub workstations are now marked with signs
   
   
5. The path in the Drop Zone has become more obvious due to some lighting tweaks
   
6. Outcasts’ (aka Aggressive NPCs) camps have been added
   
   

Technologies

1. Water Flask recipe is now located in the Food tab in the inventory screen
   

Performance

1. Latest performance update has increased the average frame rate by 5FPS on mid-range PCs
   
2. The models of mobs have been optimized
   

UI

1. The Teleport screen has been redesigned
   
   
2. Public cocoon markers have been redesigned
   
3. The waterfalls and river rapids have received new visual effects
   
4. The “Quit game” button has been reworked (it was brighter than other buttons)
   
5. The quests in the Quest log are now displayed in the following order:
   
   
   
   • Main quests in progress
     
   • Completed main quests
     
   • Side quests in progress
     
   • Completed side quests
     
   
   
   
6. The text color in recipe description has been changed
   
7. Until the player presses the Shift key, the game screen shows a notification stating that auto-run is disabled in the battle mode
   
   
8. Item images in the inventory screen no longer come out of the icon borders
   
9. The Lobby background image has been changed
   

Visuals

1. The exhaustion effect (when the stamina bar is fully depleted) has been changed;
   
2. The female character model has been redesigned
   
3. Mobs and plants’ texture emission maps have been tweaked (visible at night)
   
   
   

Various fixes

1. Fixed an issue:
   
   
   
   • that led to gaps and tears between the female character’s limbs and body
     
   • that upon respawning in the Main Hub kept the Sprained Ankle injury after death in the Drop Zone
     
   • that allowed voids to follow an aerial attack with another hit
     
   • when void’s strong attack did not deplete the stamina bar
     
   • when mobs sometimes slid when switching between targets
     
   • when the player could not see the “Help” button over the knocked down colonist
     
   • that prevented to destroy one of the leaves of Tier 3 gates
     
   • that prevented the player from filling the big flask to the full (50 swallows)
     
   • that prevented the player from taking the last swallow from the flask
     
   • that prevented the player from building a campfire/container/cocoon after a failed attempt
     
   
   
2. Stash Container destructibility has been improved
   
3. Lime and coal hitboxes have been improved
   

Hotfix:

1. It is now possible to put campfires in oases
   

Gameplay

1. The Building restrictions for the most locations on the global map have been removed, except for key locations like The Main Hub, Alpha Kvar’s lair, etc (all locations that contain unique resources or quest items)
   
2. In PvE modes, the player can no longer see loot near other players’ corpses
   
3. Armor and Suit Repair Kits have been added to the game
   
4. The cost of repair kits for weapons and tools has been reduced
   

Friends

1. The Friends feature has been improved:
   
   
   
   • The player can now bring the friend list by hitting Esc in the game
     
   • The player can now see friends’ markers on the map
     
   • Friends’ nicknames are highlighted with another color
     
   
   

Resources

1. Collision detection of Acidic Roots has been improved
   
2. There are now more gerophytes on the global map, including the Hub vicinity
   

Mobs

1. Sahrim:
   
   
   
   1. Sahrim has received a number of new animations
      
   2. The existing animations have been reworked
      
   3. Its walking and turnaround action speed has been dialed down
      
   4. Sahrim’s attacks have been improved
      
   
   
2. Improved mob behavior when 2 or more players are next to a mob or mobs
   

Global Map

1. The visuals of some Desert areas of the global map have been reworked. The mob and resource locations in these areas have been changed
   

UI

1. “Early Access” notification window has been added to the game. It appears every time the player opens the lobby
   
2. The “Back” button has been added to account and game mode selection screens
   
3. The dark background in Credits has been removed
   
4. When playing as the Void, only friends can see your nickname
   
5. Public cocoon markers become visible on the global map starting from Account Level 3
   
6. The buttons in the character and game mode selection menus now look the same. The background opacity in these menus has been removed
   
7. The silhouette in the inventory screen now matches the chosen character gender
   

Texts and Localization

1. Multiple edits of the Russian text
   
2. The new texts have been localized into English
   

Performance

1. The campfire visuals have been optimized and have a lesser effect on the frame rate
   
2. The chest assets have been optimized
   
3. Improved performance when 2 or more players are next to a mob or mobs
   
4. Multiple Hub textures and assets have been optimized
   

Fixed an Issue

• that led to the absence of final blow sound effect when hitting a mob
  
• that led to NPCs’ arms becoming invisible
  
• when players could not get out from some of the geysers in the Anomalous Region
  
• that broke the polygon mesh in one of the rocks on the global map
  

Play with friends

Gameplay

1. A new special item has been added to the game - Teleport. It allows for instant travel to the Main Hub once in every 40 minutes. At Account Level 1, Teleport can be obtained from Captain Evans. Beginning from Account Level 2, the device is immediately available at the start of a session. In case of a loss, Teleport can be collected again from Captain Evans at any given time
   
2. The loot that can be obtained from corpses depends on the region. All items collected from corpses are randomized
   

Building

1. The number of Bones required for crafting of every Tier 1 building element has been decreased from 5 to 2
   

Visuals

1. Fog and lighting settings have been corrected
   
2. Minor visual inconsistencies in character models and clothing have been fixed
   

Character

1. Strong melee attack’s animation and hit range have been fixed
   
2. The second spear combo attack’s animation and hit range have been fixed
   
3. Fixed an issue when the fourth combo attack did not do damage
   

Mobs

1. Kvar and Kso received several improvements in their animations
   

Performance

1. The game received various performance updates
   
2. Footprints and bloodstains have less effect on performance
   
3. Various post-effects have been readjusted and optimized
   

Drop Zone

1. The exits from the Drop Zone to the global map have been improved
   

Biomes

1. New locations with ship fragments containing Coal have been added in Desert
   

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed an issue:
   
   
   
   • that prevented the character from filing the flask with pure water in the Main Hub
     
   • that allowed the player to get into the battle arena in the Hub
     
   • that allowed arena gladiators (NPCs) to leave the battle arena
     
   • when upon session completion the one-hit mob kill(s) was (were) not included in account experience total score
     
   • that let the player complete certain phases of “Steps toward a Solution: Death in the Swamp” and “Steps toward a Solution: Death in the Jungle” when they visited the key locations of these quests
     
   • when certain injuries disappeared after restarting the game
     
   • when the temperature bonus of the last unequipped piece of a clothing set remained active
     
   • that on some occasions prevented the character from collecting their items in the deep water
     
   • that caused the arrows in the setting menu screen to fail to work
     
   
   
2. A certain amount of grass stuck in mid-air has been removed from the global map
   

• The number of item slots available at the Banker has been increased so it will be much easier for you to manage your items and resources.
  
• The requirements of "Steps to Rescue: Meat for the Hub" have been significantly streamlined.
  
• The most important addition of this update is the inclusion of Repair kits. The repairs are carried out instantly. We are excited to release this feature as it will optimize your time and carried weight
  

Gameplay

1. Banker now has 55 item slots
   

Quests

1. The requirements for “Steps to Rescue: Meat for the Hub” quest completion have been changed. Now, you need to obtain 15 pieces of Grilled Meat (instead of 80 pieces of Raw Meat) and 5 pieces of Roasted Sahrim Meat (instead of 30 pieces of Raw Sahrim Meat).
   

Technologies

1. Now, Roasted Sahrim Meat recipe requires Rootstick instead of Coal. This Technology is placed closer to the beginning of the Atlas
   
2. Various repair kits for tools and weapons are now available in the Atlas:
   
   
   
   • Bone repair kit
     
   • Metal repair kit
     
   • Xenophungus repair kit
     
   • Scyphopod repair kit
     
   
   The repairs happen instantly. There is a certain chance of losing a repair kit upon death. Basic weapons and tools can’t be repaired.
   
3. The number of Theory Points awarded for researching specific mobs and resources has been increased as follows:
   
   
   
   • Kvar: from 4 to 5 ThP
     
   • Merid: from 5 to 8 ThP
     
   • Limestone: from 15 to 20 ThP
     
   • Peat: from 15 to 20 ThP
     
   • Forest Kvar, Forest Yutt, Forest Fury, Scyphopod Worker, Scyphopod Warriors: from 45 to 50 ThP
     
   
   

Resources

1. All resources except Spiral Stem and Acidic Roots have been removed from the water
   
2. There are now more Pearl Berries on the global map
   

Biomes

1. Now, In the volcano located in Jungle, lava inflicts damage when the character steps in it
   
2. Jungle and Anomalous region’s temperature map borders have been tweaked
   
3. There are now more corpses with loot on the global map. Their locations have been changed
   
4. The layout of Alpha Kvar Lair has been refined
   
5. Several Desert zones have been improved
   
6. The jump-puzzles in Swamp and Anomalous region have been reworked. It is now easier to get to the Blue essence and Acidic roots
   

Mobs

1. There are now more Scyphopod Workers and Warriors in Jungle
   

Texts

1. Some descriptions have been corrected
   

Visuals and Animations

1. Hub NPCs’ designs have been slightly changed
   
2. Some male and female characters’ mid-combat movement animations have been improved
   

UI

1. The Void Sample Icon has been changed
   

Performance

1. The game received various performance upgrades and fixes
   
2. There are now less frame rate dips when the character traverses the global map, picks up items and gathers resources
   

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed an issue:
   
   
   
   • when the quest counters updated partially or did not update at all
     
   • that sometimes led to the loss of character progress
     
   • when Scyphopod Warrior’s attack sometimes missed the player’s character
     
   • when crafting timer visually reset upon opening/closing the workbench menu and displayed the remaining time until the end of crafting incorrectly
     
   • that sometimes led the workbench menu to fail to display the default selected recipe
     
   • that led to the incorrect display of the number of a certain consumable, for example, water in the flask, when it was put into a hotlsot from the inventory or vice versa
     
   
   
2. Fixed various geometry and environment bugs and issues:
   
   
   
   • resources stuck in mid-air
     
   • mountains
     
   • a character getting stuck in the space ship remains near Alpha Kvar Lair and in roots above the canyon in Desert
     
   • flawed areas in the Hub