Preview of 1.0 - Content Update 8

Greetings Mercs and Happy Halloween!

Version 1.0 is nearly feature complete, but I still have a lot of work ahead of me to prepare marketing materials, create a new trailer, and go through extensive testing. I want the launch to be as smooth as possible. This will take me at least another month to prepare.

The release will require my full attention to patch and support. I would like to allocate some family time this holiday season, so I’ve decided to schedule the release for January 8, 2026 - roughly two months from now.

Here’s a quick preview of what’s to come, but not everything is covered in this post.

REGION CAMPAIGN

• 1.0 comes with a complete campaign, structured into 3 acts.

• The lore of the acts is not revealed in this preview to avoid spoilers.

• The final mission ends a boss fight and a victory cutscene, but you'll still be able to continue playing the game and improve your squad after finishing the campaign.

• Some locations now require you to complete survivor assignments tied to the acts.

• Version 1.0 comes with five new mission locations, new enemy types, and new assignments.

• Completing major milestones shows a splash screen when returning to camp.

NEW SCORE MECHANIC: GLORY

• The game now offers an additional scoring system called Glory.

• Performing various combos in combat triggers announcer emotes, granting a score. This is an extension to the existing emotes, such as Head Shot, Double Kill, Triple Kill, etc..

• There are now over 50 voiced announcer emotes for different combos.

• The board announcer now has a separate volume control in game settings.

• This effect can be completely turned off in game settings.

REWORKED ENEMY THREAT ON REGION LOCATIONS

• Enemy scaling on mission repeats has been reworked to increase based on silent or loud runs.

• Various region modifiers can spawn to help you reduce the threat.

• The previous system of reducing threat by completing near-by missions has been phased out.

REGION MODIFIERS

• Added 12 new region modifiers to reduce the enemy threat of region locations.

• Added 3 new region modifiers tied to specific survivors.

SURVIVOR SUPPORT

• The survivor assistance mechanic has been drastically reworked with new progression and UI.

• Intel points spent on survivors are no longer tied to a single location — instead, their support improves at all locations where they offer assistance.

• More than 5 points of intel can now be spent on many survivors.

• Spent intel can no longer be refunded. (Intel points in previous saves are auto-refunded.)

• New mercs have a chance to show up in camp every day (each mission counts as a day). Previously, new mercs showed up after clearing a new location for the first time only.

• The chance of merc discovery is now tied to Ramon. Spending intel on Ramon increases this chance, giving you more control of the frequency.

ARMORY UPGRADE POINTS

• Dropped Armory point cards are no longer drawn into your hand during combat. These points are now collected and consolidated as a reward section on the Loot Haul screen.

• This change intends to reduce card clutter in hand during combat.

• The drop rate of points has been rebalanced and new gadgets can improve the chance.

• The UI of the Armory screen has been slightly reworked.

LOCATION LOOT LEVEL BONUS

• Each location now offers a bonus to the loot level of weapons found during a mission run.

• Harder missions offer a higher bonus.

• The bonus is displayed on the mission details screen in camp.

NEW SPECIAL WEAPON MODIFIERS

• Many non-unique weapons now contain new modifiers granting additional tactical benefits.

• These effects are similar to unique weapons but improve with weapon (color) upgrades, they are listed as Special Modifiers in details.

• Weapons containing these modifiers now have a custom card frame (top-left corner).

• Firearms with silencers are treated as special weapons.

NEW WEAPONS

• 8 new submachine guns with loud and silenced variants.

• 5 new assault rifles.

• 5 new sniper rifles.

• 2 new sharp weapons.

• The newly added weapons come with custom art and models.

NEW GADGETS

• A few underused gadgets have been reworked to offer new benefits.

• Some gadgets can be equipped on resting mercs in camp and still offer benefits in combat.

NEW CONSUMABLES

• 10 new valuables and junk cards to be found in the world.

• 10 new random food and drink consumables.

ENEMY CHANGES

• Eliminated bosses now spawn a separate area object containing their loot. I noticed some players missed looting bosses while rushing to return to camp, so this should hopefully resolve that.

• Enemies can now be stunned for multiple turns, enabled by a new Heavy Stun ability tied to certain blunt weapons.

REWORKED TACTICAL ADVANTAGE

• Tactical Advantage has been renamed to Recon and is no longer tied to individual mercs.

• Recon grants a chance to select an additional card to draw at the start of every turn.

• The chance is now tied to points spent in different class trees, shown on the skills UI.

PARRY CHANGES

• Unarmed combat training has been renamed to Martial Arts.

• Base parry chance is now gained by merc's training in Martial Arts.

• Pistols now include a Small Gun modifier, offering an additional bonus to parry chance.

• Improved Parry skill has been renamed to Parry Master and provides a greater bonus.

GAME DIFFICULTY

• Veteran, Apocalypse, and Extinction difficulties have been slightly increased in difficulty scaling, while Normal and Easy remain unchanged.

• You can now switch between Apocalypse and Extinction modes while in camp.

CHALLENGE MODES

• Many players enjoy playing different challenge modes which end on a specific mission, typically 4-5 missions into the Region.

• Version 1.0 will allow you to play the entire campaign on any challenge mode, giving you an alternative way to experience the full game.

GAME POLISH

• New “ Area Cleared ” screen at the end of every encounter.

• Every encounter has has a unique location name.

• Many screens have been cleaned up, with larger fonts, improved tool tips, reworked text.

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AUDIO

• Added 6 new music camp tracks (for total of 20).

• Added 8 new music combat tracks (for total of 40).

• Remastered all gunshot sounds for volume consistency.

• Refactored rapid gun fire logic to reduce audio clipping.

As usual, the full patch notes will also contain a list of all the bug fixes since the last patch.

Thank you for playing Dead Grid and I can't wait to share 1.0!

--Paul