Survivalist: Invisible Strain cover
Survivalist: Invisible Strain screenshot
Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Strategy, Adventure, Indie

Survivalist: Invisible Strain

New patch in publicbeta (v232), previous patch promoted to main branch (v231)

Hey everyone, it's patch day! This patch introduces a small new feature to Hit the Road - your companions will now increase their skill caps by a few stars when you move to another map, perhaps representing their personal growth after having survived one area and travelled to a new one :) Each exit from the map will give you a different skill cap bonus, between 1 and 5 stars each, depending on the supposed difficulty of the new area. So there's a little incentive to go for more difficult areas, or at least more of an interesting choice between areas - and to take companions with you. (Note - since the player's starting character always has full skill caps for everything, it won't have any effect on them).

I've also made it so one Hit the Road exit will always say "Similar Area" and one will say "Harder Area", instead of giving you some stats for urbanization, etc. The Similar Area will re-use exactly the same difficulty settings that you had before, while Harder Area will copy them and then try to make them a bit harder by reducing resources and increasing enemies.



When going between maps you'll see a little UI sequence showing the skill cap stars increasing. I've re-used this to show a similar sequence when you die and lose a Constitution point, as I always felt that needed to be made a bit more clear to new players. Besides that, I've also made the game remember your equipment policies when hitting the road so you don't have to set them up all over again.

Finally, three more translations have been finished and checked for technical errors - French, Lithuanian and Hungarian! Thanks to Jean-Charles Rocher, Audrius Vaidalauskis, and Attila 'Ateszkoma' Kurucz for finishing those off :)

This patch is a bit of a sad one I'm afraid because I'm making it my cutoff point - no more new features from now on! There will be bug fixes, hopefully not too many of those either but we'll see. And of course translations are still welcome. But as for the feature set, the game has been in early access for almost 5 years now and it's time to move on.

That means if all goes well I should probably be able to release it out of early access some time in April. I want to make sure I have a nice, stable build before doing so, so it has to be left to sit and cool down for a while. If things crop up, as they often do, it might take longer but I certainly hope it'll be out before the 1st of June as that would make it fully 5 years since it was launched, and I really don't want to go beyond that.

I have a long wishlist full of great ideas, both my own and suggestions from other people, that I would have liked to have done, but I think at a certain point it becomes easier to implement these things in a fresh new project where I have the ability to break stuff and change the rules, rather than being always afraid of some knock-on effect on existing systems. So that's what I'll be doing - starting a new project! I'm not sure yet if it'll be a sequel or something else (or both) but I'm going to start dividing my time between figuring that out, and whatever bug-fixing is still needed for Invisible Strain. (Also, I'm going to try and bring this game to other platforms - but more on that later).

Here's the full change list for v232:

  • When dying and being rescued by another community, show a brief sequence informing you that you have lost a Constitution point
  • When hitting the road, increase your companions skill caps, using the above mentioned sequence to show them increasing
  • A couple of Hit the Road exits in Sandbox maps will give you the options of Similar Area (to keep your current settings) and More Dangerous Area (dial the difficulty up)
  • Equipment policies are remembered when hitting the road
  • When doing an urgent role, characters will play animations such as wood chopping faster (and chop the tree down faster)
  • Updated Czech, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Latin American Spanish and Lithuanian translations
  • More support for Hungarian cases
  • Show on the debug menu when achievements are disabled because of mods
  • Fix for enemies smelling or hearing followers while creeping up on them
  • Fix for being able to bury two bodies in the same grave by putting one in while someone is walking towards it with another
  • Fix for followers sometimes playing fists up melee stance while holding a bottle or other item that isn't a weapon, before moving to attack an enemy
  • Fix for characters and equipment on Community screen showing black squares when you switch the sort type
  • Fix for characters sometimes freezing at the end of certain animations like hugging or unequipping
  • Fix for shades sometimes clipping characters' foreheads
  • Fix for sun lens flare disappearing when highlighting a character and showing the PiP
  • Fix for terrain cache error sometimes when saving a multiplayer Story Mode game
  • Fix for incompatibility with SIS Explosive Props mod
  • Fix for Out Of Sync sometimes when dying and getting rescued
  • Crash fix

Lastly, v231 has been promoted to the main branch.

What's this publicbeta thing?


v232 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
  • Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  • If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  • If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".

New patch in publicbeta (v231), previous patch promoted to main branch (v230)

Hello, it's time for another patch in publicbeta. I would say I am pretty close now to releasing the game out of early access, which means pretty soon I'll be locking the build down and only adding essential fixes (as I don't want to be adding instability around launch). There's a small new feature in this patch though - if someone is following you, and you assassinate an enemy, they will assassinate nearby enemies, The Last of Us style (with a bit of fudge factor on the stealth - also The Last of Us style). They'll only do it if they have a hunting knife and enough fitness/hand 2 hand skill to be successful.



I'm mostly doing "tidying up" tasks these days. There are now seven "completed" translations - Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Turkish - and I've been running a script on them to check for errors involving formulas, emoticons or missing parameters. (When I say "completed" I mean every line has a translation, though there could still be corrections, so let me know if you'd like to add any). I will do Lithuanian and Hungarian next.

Also I made the smaller backpacks have color variations. Okay no one was crying out for this but it always felt jarring to me that they all looked the same. And I've made vehicles more slippery in snow and mud, but a bit less likely to slide sideways as it always felt like they swung around too easily when cornering. Here's the full list:

  • Followers will assassinate (or choke hold) enemies nearby when you do (with a little cheating on the stealth)
  • Using right-stick on gamepad, or XZ on keyboard, on the Scavenge screen (et al) switches between the two inventories
  • Smaller backpacks can have different colors
  • Reduce wheel friction on slippery terrain types and conditions (mud, snow, ice), increase sideways wheel friction slightly so vehicles less prone to sliding when cornering
  • Optimizations mostly to Community page
  • Updated Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Turkish translations
  • More grammar functions to support Czech translation
  • Fix for trader icons sometimes showing where refugees who have left the map were last
  • Fix for your followers breaking stealth to attack enemies when you stealth-attack them
  • Fix for characters using the the wrong indefinite article when saying things like 'I'm getting a slacks' or 'I'm getting some pot'
  • Fix for not being able to load Huge maps created in mods
  • Fixes for some languages not being rendered correctly after switching to them, until you restart the game
  • Crash fix

And I've promoted v230 to the main branch!

What's this publicbeta thing?


v231 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
  • Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  • If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  • If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".

New patch in publicbeta (v229), previous patch promoted to main branch (v228)

Hello, it's patch time :) This one's a bit technical. I've upgraded to a more recent version of Unity in the hopes of fixing an intermittent bug where gamepad controllers stopped working after a while. There's fixes for some recently discovered crashes, a few small optimizations, and fixes for mods such as SIS Locked Buildings (which I broke in a previous patch).

In terms of new features there are two main ones, which are both things I should probably have done a long time ago. The game will now autosave every 10 minutes or so. This is an often-requested feature but I've always held off on it because saving always means a small hitch in framerate and I didn't want that to interrupt combat or just the flow of the game. To get round this I've made it so it will try to wait until you're not in combat or in dialog, and you haven't pressed a button (or moved a joystick or mouse) for 1 second. Hopefully that way it'll be less obtrusive. If it still hasn't autosaved after 20 minutes it'll just save regardless though.

The other new feature is a Respawn button for online co-op players who die. I avoided doing that for such a long time because I always wanted there to be a cost for dying, so that you feel invested in your character and there's a sense of tension and weight to your decisions. Since you can always recruit new NPCs - or reload a savegame - it doesn't stop the co-op player from playing.

The problem with that is, as I've now made it possible for co-op players to start relationships and friendships with other community members, if their character dies they lose all ability to do that. That isn't the case for the "main" player, because you can get the community to elect a new leader who then becomes the main player's "avatar" and can do all the stuff they could. There's no equivalent for co-op players.

That sucked because although I want there to be a cost for dying, I don't want to close off any options permanently. Secondly, saying "well you can reload a savegame" goes against the philosophy of living with the consequences of your decisions and embracing the darkness (TM). So I think it's better to allow them to spawn a new character. There still is a cost to dying anyway - you lose your dead character's progression in skills and relationships.

So I added a Respawn button to the pause menu, if you are a co-op player whose original avatar is dead. (I called it Respawn because that's an easily recognizable word to gamers - it's not really respawning though as it creates a new character with starting skill levels).



Here's the full changelist:

  • Autosave automatically every 10 minutes or so, if the player is not in combat and doesn't touch the controls for 1 second
  • Added a Respawn button the Pause menu for online co-op players whose avatar dies
  • Reinstate the ability to bandage unconscious zombies to raise your medical skill
  • Made NPCs with high hand to hand skill change their blocking stance more often
  • Updated French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Simplified Chinese and Turkish translations, made game recognise Czech.tsv files
  • Upgraded to Unity 6000.0.35f1 in attempt to fix bug where gamepad would stop working after a while
  • Fix for some situations where you couldn't move the cursor with the gamepad in the menus because it continually returned to the button the mouse was hovering over even though you weren't using the mouse
  • Fix for sometimes getting an error message when you try to save save if you join a multiplayer game in Story mode and then the host leaves
  • Fix for former members of Survivalists or FEMA being able to have the Loyalty quest, which would break canon
  • Fix for allied followers not filling water bottles or sitting round fires when you do
  • Fix for crafters sometimes not dumping their heaviest containers when they are full of the thing they are crafting
  • Fix for out of sync error when getting jumped by zombies
  • Fix for crash in mod with prop that wasn't set up to have a model
  • Fixes for the SIS Locked Buildings mod which I broke in a previous patch
  • Possible fix for error message taking you back to the menu when starting a game with mods that have the same asset bundle
  • Crash fixes
  • Optimizations


I've also promoted v228 to the main branch. There are some problems in v228 which are fixed by the "crash fixes" etc above, but they weren't introduced by v228 and it seems otherwise solid.

What's this publicbeta thing?


v229 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
  • Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  • If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  • If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".

New small patch in publicbeta (v228), last patch promoted to main branch (v226)

Hello, it's patch day again! Just another bunch of bug fixes and tweaks :) I feel I'm getting pretty close to being able to release the game out of early access now so a lot of the patches are going to be stuff like this. I'm trying to focus on fixing things and avoid adding new features that then introduce new bugs and also need translation work. Speaking of which, it looks like the Latin American Spanish translation is really close to being finished, thanks Facundo!

I've had some reports of large communities getting into feuds that trigger more feuds until it becomes impossible for anyone to do any work, this patch makes some small changes to try and address that. I've tried to make the AI for fighting from watchtowers better at getting ammo when they run out. And I've made the dump truck knock things over more easily without having its momentum stopped by them, so it feels more like the juggernaut it's supposed to be.



I've also added an Active Mods tab to the Sort Order drop-down when selecting mods, so you can see the ones you have already selected without having to scroll around a lot.



Here's the full list:

  • Some improvements to guard AI to make them leave watchtowers and restock ammo when they run out
  • Some tweaks to memories about feuding to try and make it less likely that a large community will get stuck in a chain of fights with each other
  • Made dump truck knock things over more easily
  • Characters doing a task set to urgent won't stop to watch snowball fights
  • Remove unreciprocated 'In Love With' relationships from a character if they are getting to have too many of them
  • Updated Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Simplified Chinese, Turkish and Ukrainian translations
  • Fix for player being able to manually pour lumpy liquids like stew or curry into bottles
  • Fix a situation where characters could get stuck in restraining animation loop
  • Fix for infected stew not infecting people if they empty the container in one bite
  • Possible crash fix
  • Added Active Mods option to sort order drop-down when selecting mods
  • Fix for recipient of hugging animation instantly snapping to idle pose instead of transitioning out properly


The previous patch seems to have been okay so it has been moved to the main branch. This enables online co-op players to start relationships and friendships with your community members, like the main player can do.

What's this publicbeta thing?


v228 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
  • Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  • If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  • If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".

New patch in publicbeta (v225), previous patch promoted to main branch (v224)

Hello, there's a new patch in town! By which I mean publicbeta. It's another mostly bug fixing patch, nothing earth shattering. The biggest change is I enabled online co-op players to have relationships and friendships with community members, and generally have the same dialog options the main player has. Something I always meant to do but never got round to.


There have also been some improvements to the Storage Policy dialog, you can see what buildings something will be stored in by hovering over it, and items you have discovered but have 0 of will still be shown (this applies to the Community screen as well). For convenience you can also cycle through all the buildings (that can have a storage policy) with the Q/E buttons, while in the dialog.


Finally, the Korean and Lithuanian translations are now complete including Story Mode! Thanks so much to Hyun-il Lee, aka 해무아빠 and Audrius Vaidalauskis! (Hyun-il mentioned there might be some more corrections coming on the Korean but all the lines have a translation now)

Here's the full change list:

  • Give other online co-op players the same dialog options as the leader when talking to community members
  • Show time next to date on community screen
  • Include all discovered equipment and liquids on Community menu and Storage Policy dialog, even if you have have 0 of them
  • Show what other buildings are set to store something when hovering it on the Storage Policy dialog, and allow you to switch buildings on that dialog
  • Automatically chop trunk for 1 wood unit after chopping down a tree manually
  • Trigger Supreme Commander achievement if you wipe out the map without recruiting anyone (and Survivor Camp Density is greater than 100%), this also gets Sole Survivor if you're in Hard mode
  • Allow you to set Roles once you have any buildings (or community members, or chickens), so it's easier for players on a Sole Survivor run to automate things
  • Some tweaks to make rabbits less flighty when you throw carrots
  • Ensure first names are unique in world when spawning new NPCs
  • Updated Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Polish and Russian translations
  • Fix for people not being damaged when burning
  • Fix for crafting progress indicator sometimes showing the wrong ingredients, where items in the ingredients are interchangeable (such as different kind of meat in meaty stew)
  • Fix for a situation where a crafter failed to dump a container of recipe ingredients to free up space, which they had multiple containers with enough of the ingredients
  • Fix for characters commenting on every corpse they see in a large pile of corpses
  • Fix for characters feuding excessively with people who reject someone they like, also fix for people feuding with someone they have recent bad memories of but like overall
  • Fix for not being able to get into your vehicle if it contains a chicken from another community
  • Fix for 'Park' algorithm to make it not give up so easily on trying to find a valid place to teleport the vehicle to
  • Fix for player community members getting memories that you poached people from your own community, after you recruit a complex chain of related characters
  • Fix for people's clothes occasionally disappearing when you recruit them
  • Fix for characters occasionally being able to teleport through walls after vaulting over something and finding themselves on a tile occupied by another character
  • Fix for not being able to complete This Here Ain't Venison if you had recruited or killed all the Survivalists
  • Fix for Charlie attacking you if you steal something from the Survivalists
  • Fix for character getting into an infinite loop when the rock on the next tile was placed on a slope
  • Fix for hang if you press Escape while transitioning to the next screen after the loading screen from the Story Select menu
  • Fix for SetPlayDead event not working if setting it to true (for modders)

EDIT - had to do a quick hotfix, so it's v226 now:

  • Possible fix for vehicles sometimes sinking through the floor
  • Fix for crash when highlighting an in-progress building


The previous patch (v224) doesn't seem to have had any major issues so it's being promoted to the main branch. Hooray!

What's this publicbeta thing?


v226 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
  • Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  • If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  • If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".

New small patch in publicbeta (v224), previous patch moved to main branch (v223)

Hey everyone, happy new year! It's time for a small patch, v224 in publicbeta. I've added a loading screen when you start a new game and select a Story, so the game doesn't just stall for ages when you click Zedmulate anymore. I've changed the Cyrillic font again - so now all Cyrillic text uses the same Komika style as the Roman languages do - thanks to Pavel Borisov for adding those characters!



The rest is just bug fixes but one of them was pretty shocking. It turns out the game was getting updated at a slower tick than it should have, so you would often see longer animations getting out of sync with the sounds or game events they triggered. I think it happened when I upgraded Unity a while back. It didn't affect the framerate per se but you might feel that you move a bit faster now when walking or running. I really should have noticed that one sooner. Here's the full list:

  • Loading screen when you load a story (as opposed to stalling for ages, especially for big workshop mods)
  • Show error messages when a savegame fails (e.g. due to lack of disk space) and return token if one was used. Also show free disk space on SaveGame menu.
  • Cyrillic characters for Komika text font
  • Updated Indonesian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Polish, Russian and Simplified Chinese translations
  • NPCs get a memory that you Helped them if you give them free stuff via one-sided trading
  • Possible fix for being able to knock someone out just after fisticuffs, which then leads to them declaring war on you
  • Fix for memories of who beat up who being the wrong way round after a feud is finished
  • Fix for being able to damage NPCs with melee weapons in fisticuffs
  • Fix for animations getting out of sync with game
  • Fix for gangs that spawn in Ritzville not being able to get out by attacking the gates
  • Fix for Intimidation quest not continuing after saying 'I'd watch my back if I were you'
  • Fix for chef not being able to cook anything when a vehicle was close to their campfire
  • Fix for a situation where someone with a crafting role gave up because they didn't dump containers in their inventory to make space
  • Fix for hang when you pick up the green passes after having recruited certain characters

I've also moved the previous patch, v223, to the main branch as it doesn't seem to have have had any major problems. That adds the Medic Role and one-sided trading.



What's this publicbeta thing?


v224 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
  • Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  • If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  • If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".

New patch in publicbeta (v223), moved v222 to main branch

Hey everyone, Merry Christmas! I've got a new patch out in publicbeta, and the previous publicbeta patch is going to the main branch. The main new feature in this patch is I've added the Medic role, as it got a lot of upvotes in the discord and wasn't too much of a stretch to implement. You can assign it to your community members with high medical skill so they'll upgrade people's bandages without you needing to do it manually. Also, onesided trading - if you want to help an NPC out by giving them more goods than they have gold to purchase with, you can now do that. It's Christmas!



Another big change is I've changed the Cyrillic fonts to be more in keeping with the comic book style of the default fonts. Someone found a version of the Komika title font that supports Cyrillic characters, and for non-title text I'm using Comic Relief bold which isn't perfect but looks much more similar to Komika than Open Sans (which I was using before) does. Separately, Turkish will now use the same fonts as Lithuanian (called Luckiest Guy and Poetsen One), as they seem to support it better than Komika did. Let me know if you see any font problems, especially in those languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and Lithuanian).



The rest of the patch is mostly bug fixes. Some of them are quite subtle but important, like Invisible Strain hasn't been spreading nearly as much as it should have been, for a pretty long time I think. Here's the full list:

  • Medic Role
  • Allow onesided trading
  • Map icons for extortion squads and Trustworthy Tim's Trading Party
  • Stop armor striped temporarily for fisticuffs from adding to your inventory weight and potentially making you encumbered at an awkward time
  • NPCs in settlements don't consume bandages when healing the player (previously they didn't consume them when healing themselves and each other, but did when healing the player)
  • NPCs are more likely to restock bandages when you buy them
  • Changed Cyrillic (Russian and Ukrainian) fonts to ones that are more similar to the Komika style that English and other Latin languages use, also set Turkish to use the Luckiest Guy/PoetsenOne fonts as they support it better
  • Updated Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian and Simplified Chinese translations
  • If the player has taken over crop patches in a dead settlement, and NPCs then occupy the settlement, the NPCs will also take over the crop patches
  • Don't show hints about not being able to kill people with leg shots, and attacks not doing much damage if you're exhausted, if hints are disabled
  • Fix for Carter Moreno and other long patrol members being able to join you
  • Fix for Liam and squad getting stuck if the FEMA director is dead by the time they appear
  • Fix for NPC settlements getting stuck unable to rebuild destroyed buildings if the original builder dies and the replacement doesn't have high enough skill
  • Fix for yellow status notification showing character has broken up with their ex when you start a Dark Past quest with them
  • Fix for being able to knock someone out in fisticuffs
  • Fix for White Hills Gang not giving you keys if you bribe them
  • Fix for stuff like Advanced DIY book being lowercase in quest descriptions
  • Fix for a situation where crafters with multiple crafting tasks that depended on each other got stuck in a loop
  • Fix for Ritz Creek Gang halting their invasion of Weathermen if they see Christina's unconscious body
  • Fix for Charlie being too depressed to follow you as soon as you get him out of prison
  • Fix for characters continuing to follow each other after cooking a treat was cancelled
  • Fix for destroyed fence physics glitches intersecting with ground when driving vehicle into it
  • Fix for miners sometimes saying 'We've got nowhere to dump this flint, etc' when there's plenty of space to dump it
  • Fix for invisible strain not spreading properly and occasionally crashing
  • Fix for option being shown to pour fuel onto trees, even though you can't set them on fire
  • Fix for out of sync error in snowball fights
  • Possible fix for crash when saving


As mentioned above, v222 is now in the main branch. This means the following features are coming to the main branch:


Finally, I'm updating the store page with a new trailer, screenshots and description text that covers all the stuff that's been added over the last 4 years. New year's resolution: I will release this game out of early access in 2025! Merry Christmas again and happy new year!

What's this publicbeta thing?


v223 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
  • Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  • If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  • If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".

New patch in publicbeta (v222) with ability to target head/legs in fisticuffs

Hello, it's another quick publicbeta patch because someone found a crash in the last one. This adds one new feature though: the ability to target someone's head or legs in unarmed combat. NPCs will change their stance so you can tell if they are going to be targeting your head or legs. If you're in the lower stance you can't block against high attacks, and if you're in the high stance you can't block against low attacks. (You can always dodge, but that uses stamina, while blocking doesn't).



That is, of course, how melee combat with weapons has always worked but unarmed combat was more limited, which I felt was a shame since you tend to need to use fisticuffs quite a lot in the game to raise people's respect for you, as well as earning money. Hopefully this makes it more interesting. It's possible I've made it too easy, not sure, the AI may need tweaking a little to react to your stance more. Let me know how you find it.

Here's the full change list:

  • Added ability to aim punches at head or legs in unarmed mode (and you can't block if you aim the opposite way), to make fisticuffs more interesting
  • Slightly changed how 'presence' is calculated to give less priority to tall structures
  • Fix for pathfinding bug when fleeing in enemy bases
  • Fix for player being able to isolate people from extortion squad and assassinate them as they return to their base
  • Fix for infected melee weapons being combinable (and therefore losing their 'doses remaining' bar)
  • Dialog fixes for when taking over crop patches
  • Possible fix for some situations where NPCs blamed the player for attacking them when they were actually helping defend against raiders
  • Stop NPC community leaders from being lumberjacks as it makes them easy to kill
  • Fix for walls with health set to 0 in mods not being invincible
  • Crash fix
  • Updated Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish and Simplified Chinese translations


What's this publicbeta thing?


v222 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
  • Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  • If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  • If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".

New patch in publicbeta (v221) with small fixes & partial Indonesian translation

I've released a quick patch into publicbeta as I wanted to fix a problem with the previous patch where you would get giant boards on the window of a Shack you took over.

This patch introduces the Indonesian translation! It's not finished yet, but it's a pretty long way along and it looks like you can play most of Sandbox mode with it. Many thanks to translators Electro Javaboy and Felbie!

Here's the full list:

  • Fix for Shack having giant boarded up window
  • Fix for icons not showing for under construction buildings
  • Fix for someone saying both 'your leadership sucks!' and 'I'm sorry but I've had enough' when leaving your community
  • Make your community members less likely to automatically start a war if a looter tries to shake them down while you're not controlling them
  • Reverted previous fix that paused the game when the application lost focus, not everyone wants that
  • Updated Japanese, Korean, Hungarian, Latin American Spanish and Simplified Chinese translations, and added Bahasa Indonesia!


What's this publicbeta thing?


v221 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
  • Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  • If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  • If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".

New patch in publicbeta with "under construction" visuals (v220)

Hello, I've got a new patch in the publicbeta branch with visuals for buildings under construction. So whereas previously you would just have seen an empty patch of ground with ropes around it, now you'll see the building taking shape piece by piece. It's not exactly Manor Lords as there's no animation, but it's much cuter than it was. Looks particularly nice on the wood cabins!



Also when you take over a building, you'll see wooden boards going up across the windows (if it has windows), to give you a little visual indication that you're doing something.

(Note to mod makers who make buildings - it should be possible get both these effects to show on your buildings if you want, but it would need a bit of setting up. I'll add some details to the guide soon).

The rest of the patch is bug fixes and small quality of life things, e.g. I tweaked some of my previous changes to the map screen, you can now press M as a shortcut for placing markers, whereas before you could hold the right mouse button down. Here's the full list:

  • Building construction effect
  • Show boarded up windows on buildings you take over
  • Hold shift to transfer all items in a stack when scavenging
  • Hold shift to add to selection when dragging selection box on map screen (previously only worked in Command Mode), also press M as a shortcut to place markers
  • Make sorting of inventory items of the same category more consistent when sorting by type
  • Deprioritize unconscious enemies when aiming
  • Crippled zombies are less likely go into the frustration animation when their route to you is blocked by others, and more likely to keep trying to pathfind to you
  • Fix for game not pausing when the application loses focus
  • Fix for X button not working for Reload/Skip Conversation etc on Steam Deck or gamepads
  • Fix for chef occasionally getting stuck in a loop when their fire needs more wood and they are also hungry
  • Fix for gang leader in Loyalty quest starting a feud with you after you successfully bluffed that you had snipers nearby
  • Fix for Weathermen quest not completing if you convince Jeremy by having high approval/respect
  • Fix for NPCs sheltering in buildings for ages for warmth because they have no fire lighting equipment even if there is plenty nearby
  • Fix for not getting the achievement for stealing a chicken
  • Fix for characters sometimes walking a long distance to find sealed containers
  • Fix for NPCs who were attacking you sometims getting teleported a long distance if they knock you out and you get rescued by another community
  • Stopped screen resolution drop-down from displaying multiple different refresh rates for each size, because you can't change them anyway because we're not using exclusive full-screen mode
  • Some Story Mode map fixes
  • Some support for modders to increase map size to 2x2km (not officially supported though)
  • Crash fixes
  • Updated French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Lithuanian, Russian and Simplified Chinese translations



What's this publicbeta thing?


v220 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
  • Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  • If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  • If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".