Full notes
Full The Forever Winter update
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Repeated intro
Hello Scavs,
What changed
- Gameplay
- Events
- Balance
- Performance
The Forever Winter changes
Some news on an incoming update (currently scheduled to release the week of April 12th, 2026):
Early access means some systems are still in active development, and we want to be honest about that. We also want to be honest that we can’t improve everything at once. Our focus is on the changes that most improve the flow, clarity, and survival experience of the game while setting up future work in the right order.
With that in mind, our next push is focused on getting the experience closer to what it was always meant to feel like: not just harder or deeper, but more coherent. The goal is to improve the flow of the game so that your decisions, your risks, and your time in the world connect more cleanly. Survival should feel deliberate, not luck based.
Part of that means making stealth a more viable path. Combat is becoming more costly and more dangerous, which means choosing when not to fight should carry more weight. You’ll see fewer hunter-killer escalations when you move carefully, and sneaking through encounters should feel like a legitimate way to stay alive, not just a slower version of combat.
We read and listened to a lot of your feedback, and it helps us identify pain points and pressure-test our priorities. But we also have to sequence work carefully. Not everything can be tackled at once, and not every request translates directly into a change—but all of it helps shape where we go next. Our job is to use that feedback to make smart decisions, not to react to every issue in isolation.
High level summary
HKs will no longer be summoned based on loot alone with a few key exceptions such as collecting boss parts.
All Tunnels, Ashen Mesa, and Scorched Enclave will be free to fast travel to once they have been visited at least once.
Enemy AI respawn and spawn rates have been adjusted in the tunnels.
Many of the “worst-case” navigation / jumping areas of the tunnels have been adjusted to be more forgiving.
Manufacture times for elements commonly used for gameplay have been reduced or outright eliminated.
Credit rewards for quests have been increased.
Stamina costs have been adjusted to better fit the risk/reward balance of movement and combat.
If a Scav dies in a tunnel, their tombstone will be placed near the checkpoint drone / campfire.
Recruit AI will no longer get lost or stuck in the tunnels: they now avoid the tunnels and wait for you on the surface / in the next region.
Details on the Changes
| What’s changing | Why |
|---|---|
| HKs will no longer be summoned based on loot alone with a few key exceptions such as collecting boss parts. | This reinforces that looting and stealth as a viable strategy, and a beneficial alternative to combat.This reduces scenarios where the player feels like they have to engage in combat and makes it clearer when aggression triggers a lethal response. |
| All Tunnels, Ashen Mesa, and Scorched Enclave will be free to fast travel to once they have been visited at least once. | This rewards initial exploration and adds to player choice once that exploration has been achieved.The tunnels are the Scav ‘underground highway,’ giving players a faster way to move between locations once they know the route. |
| Enemy AI respawn and spawn rates have been adjusted in the tunnels | We’ve adjusted tunnel encounters to better support the idea of sneaking under the war rather than constantly being forced into it.Earlier tunnels will now have less enemy AI (especially when traveling solo) |
| Many of the “worst-case” navigation / jumping areas of the tunnels have been adjusted to be more forgiving. | This reduces pain points for navigation in the tunnels and also mitigates extreme-fail conditions should you slip and fall. |
| Manufacture times for elements commonly used for gameplay have been reduced or outright eliminated. | Consumables and ammo that are common and frequently used can now be instantly manufactured, leaning into the crafting element of the game without slowing down those elements based on time.More valuable / complex items still require manufacturer times, but those times have been tuned as well. |
| Credit rewards for quests have been increased. | Quests should now be a more rewarding source of credits as you explore the depths. Many of the credit rewards for quests have been increased by as much as 133%. |
| Stamina costs have been adjusted to better fit the risk/reward balance of movement and combat. | It should now be easier to slip away from a dangerous situation, as stamina costs have been adjusted for rig weight and for mantling, jumping, and sprinting. |
| If a scav dies in a tunnel, their tombstone will be placed near the checkpoint drone / campfire. | This makes the tombstone location more consistent and dependable when returning to the tunnels. |
| Recruit AI will no longer get lost or stuck in the tunnels: they now avoid the tunnels and wait for you on the surface / in the next region. | Buddy AI needs to be useful and dependable. These changes make them more reliable while accounting for navigation challenges they cannot handle as well as the player. |
| The Shaman can now see the name of the area that will be accessed for each extraction point on both the compass and in-world. | This fits with the lore of the Shaman: he has access to technical info the other Scavs do not. |
Changes We’re Investigating
| What we’re looking at | Why | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| More fluid movement | Make navigation and movement more fluid for the players | We are exploring allowing strafing and diagonal movement while running.This may create technical or design side effects we need to solve first. |
| Allow players to change FOV via options | Allow for more situational awareness and player choice | We’re evaluating the technical and gameplay impact of exposing FOV options.If we expose FOV options, they may need to be limited to third-person views only, due to how the camera was set up. |
Areas We Want To Tackle Next-
The big 3:
Gunplay
Movement
AI
The above changes are core flow and balance adjustments, and these pushes will take time. Each change in this category comes with additional risk in terms of perf and stability, and difficulty, and will undoubtedly require iteration.
It may also mean dialing down some of the elements that are already in the game, for example, the current faction system allows players that have a good faction score to have a lower percentage chance of being targeted by members of that faction. We may need to dial this down if that slower reaction time is giving the impression that the enemy is having a harder time tracking the player if they are acting aggressively.
This is one example of many, and all of the systems are working as part of a larger ecosystem that creates the game experience as a whole.
As a final note: Every change we make affects other parts of the game, including what we can and cannot prioritize at the same time. That means we have to measure problems, goals, and solutions carefully so the game becomes better, not just different.
As always, keep telling us what you’re seeing. Your feedback helps us spot pain points, validate priorities, and understand where the experience needs to evolve. We may not be able to tackle everything at once, but we are listening, we are prioritizing, and we are making changes with intention.
Thanks guys, we really appreciate it, and we have some cool stuff up next week>
-Fundog Out
Source
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