Animations & Characters
- Added carry positions for weapons not held in the hands: rifles and shotguns are slung across the back or the backpack, pistols are holstered and knives sheathed.
- Added draw and holster animations when switching between the hands and a carry position.
- Added reload and weapon-swap animations.
- Added idle animations while standing still (shifting weight, looking around, checking the watch, rubbing hands), with a different set per character.
- Added visible breath in cold conditions.
- Improved flashlight aiming: the beam follows the terrain on slopes and stays steady while moving. Applies to other players' flashlights as well.
Weapons & Combat
- Adjusted firing from the lowered stance: the weapon is raised first (0.2 s).
UI & Settings
- Added the complete settings menu with eight categories: Display, Graphics, Game, Audio, Voice Chat, Controls, Mouse & Controller and Accessibility.
- Added key rebinding for all actions (two keys and one controller binding each) with conflict detection.
- Added controller support in all menus and in game.
- Added music to the main menu (can be turned off under Settings › Audio).
- Added the What's New panel to the main menu with links to the patch notes and the community Discord.
Voice Chat
- Added voice transmission modes: push-to-talk, voice activation, open microphone and toggle.
- Added input and output device selection, a mute key and a live microphone test.
- Added noise gate and automatic gain control.
Multiplayer & Servers
- Added private hosting from the server browser: a singleplayer world can be started as a server and shared with an invite code.
- Added NAT traversal and relay connections for private servers; port forwarding is no longer required.
- Added Steam integration: Steam sign-in, joining via the friends list and invites, VAC-secured servers. Active from the Steam release.
- Adjusted the default server size to 20 players (configurable from 16 to 40).
Known issues
- Steam features remain inactive until the Steam release. Until then, sign-in uses the PESTBOUND ID.
