Early Access Update #1 - Combat Rebalance - Now Live

The Community Playtest is over and the feedback has been great. Thank you to everyone who jumped in and shared their thoughts. Based on what we heard, we've made a significant round of rebalancing before pushing this update live.

Here's everything that changed and why.

Combat feels more condition-based and less random.

The biggest shift in this rebalance is moving away from RNG frustration and toward difficulty that reflects your actual state. If you're healthy and prepared, fights should feel manageable. If you're injured, cold, and exhausted, they should feel dangerous. That's the idea behind most of these changes.

Double attacks are now tied to your condition.

Previously, animals could attack twice based on turn rolls alone. That created situations where double hits felt random and unfair.

Now, an animal only attacks twice if two conditions are both true: your turn is 6 minutes, AND your Slowpoke value is high enough to indicate you're genuinely struggling. If you're in good shape, you won't get hit twice out of nowhere. Double attacks are now a consequence of your condition, not bad luck.

Injured animals are less accurate.

Animals that are wounded should be less dangerous, not equally threatening at full and near-death health. Deer, Moose, Boar, Wolf, and Wolverine now lose accuracy as their HP drops. The lower their health, the less likely they are to land a clean hit.

This doesn't apply to Bears or Skittish animals. Bears remain as dangerous as ever regardless of how much damage they've taken. For now, at least.

Wolves now try to flee when nearly dead.

A badly wounded wolf no longer just keeps fighting until it drops. When a wolf's health gets critically low, it attempts to flee.

If you have a ranged weapon or throwable, you get one free attack before it escapes. A Bow is the most reliable option for finishing it off. A Spear hits hard but costs more durability. A Rock is low damage and unlikely to finish the job.

Kill it and you get full loot. Hit it but don't kill it and it escapes. Miss and it disappears into the snow. The combat log will tell you what's happening so you know when that window opens.

Deer are more killable.

Deer were escaping too reliably once injured. They still try to flee when their health drops below half, but their flee chance has been reduced and scales more gradually now. Landing a hit reduces their flee chance for the following turn. Staggering them stops them from fleeing entirely on that turn.

They're still evasive. Just less frustratingly so.

Weapon accuracy has been improved across the board.

Every weapon has received an accuracy buff. Fewer misses, better combat feel, and clearer weapon roles across the board.

Low durability weapons are penalised, not crippled.

Low durability weapons now deal slightly less damage and lose a bit of accuracy. The penalty is noticeable enough to matter but won't leave you completely defenceless. Keep your weapons maintained, but if you're caught in a fight with a worn weapon, you're not completely out of options.

Armor now protects against injuries, not just damage.

Previously armor reduced damage. Now it also reduces the chance of injuries, which matters a lot given how injuries feed into Slowpoke and slow you down over time.

Light Armor reduces the chance of open injuries like Minor Cuts, Lacerations, and Open Wounds, and offers some protection against mobility injuries like Sprained Ankles and Fractures. It doesn't protect against blunt trauma, so kicks, charges, and bear attacks still hit hard.

Heavy Armor offers significantly stronger protection across open and mobility injuries, and is fully immune to Broken Ribs and Fractures. It also reduces the chance of Concussions and Crushing Trauma. The tradeoff is the existing Slowpoke penalty, heavy armor makes you harder to hurt but slower to act.

Aggressive animals now unlock progressively.

Aggressive animals no longer appear from the very start. They enter the encounter pool once you've reached the River. Players who move quickly through the early game can encounter danger sooner. Players who take their time get more breathing room to prepare.

After any aggressive encounter, regardless of the outcome, there's a 24-hour cooldown before another aggressive animal can appear. Back-to-back wolf attacks were frustrating and that shouldn't happen anymore.

Strong Rope can now be crafted from Ropes.

3 Ropes can now be combined into one Strong Rope, taking 20 minutes. All existing recipes that use Strong Rope remain unchanged. This just makes early progression smoother when Strong Rope is hard to find.

Bears have been temporarily removed from encounters.

Bears are currently unbeatable without the right equipment, and that equipment isn't in the game yet. We're removing Bears from the encounter pool temporarily until the Bear Trident is released. Once it is, Bears will return, and you'll finally have a way to fight back.

Other Updates

Steam Cloud Saves are now supported. Your save data will sync automatically across devices.

Some news on Update #2

The major features of Early Access Update #2 will be:

• New weather system

• New pouch system

More details coming soon!

That covers everything in this rebalance. As always, let us know how it feels in the comments or over on Discord at https://discord.gg/dPT8d6KVSC

Thanks for playing.

— Jerry & Yune