Barfender Update: Progression, Instruments & Fixes
Proto Division
Hello everyone!
First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who jumped into Barfender during its first days in Early Access! Your bug reports, suggestions and feedback have been incredibly helpful, and many of the changes below came directly from you.
We've shipped a bunch of fixes and improvements over the last couple of days!
Progression
- Licences now unlock based on Star Rating instead of story quests.
- Once you reach a star level, licence unlocks tied to it stay unlocked even if your rating drops later.
- Lowered the decoration points required to reach new star ratings.
Instruments
- Overhauled guitar interactions with a new hold pose, hand IK and strumming.
- Guitar strums are now synchronized in co-op.
- Updated guitar and drum sounds.
- Electric guitars can now be carried.
Chairs & Staff
- Improved chair physics to make them more stable.
- Staff table assignment no longer has a distance limit.
- Tables already assigned to another staff member are now clearly highlighted.
Cozy Nook
Cozy Nook difficulty now disables:
- Customer puking
- Hobo
- Thief
- Hussein's visits
These settings will also appear locked while playing on this difficulty.
Chaos & NPC Fixes
- Simply raising your fists no longer counts as starting a brawl.
- Fixed staff and job applicants reacting to fights that weren't actually happening.
- Fixed an issue where this could prevent the day from ending.
- Taking an item away from a drunk customer who is throwing things now sobers them up.
- Hussein now brings his "brothers" instead of his "thugs."
Twitch
- Fixed chatters being assigned to Hussein's crew or unavailable avatars.
- Trash bag polls can now give bonus recycling value.
More
- Added a Hide UI toggle to Photo Mode.
- Added a message for returning demo players explaining save compatibility.
- Bottled beer can now be poured into cocktail shakers.
- Pawn Shop prices for dispensers now depend on how full they are.
- Fixed the Broken Guitar disappearing from some saves.
- Fixed the final quest voice-over and subtitles.
- Fixed the emote camera clipping through walls.
- Fixed several decoration, item placement, recycling and progression issues.
Please keep the reports coming! We're reading everything and will keep improving Barfender throughout Early Access.
See you behind the bar!
Proto Division & Rock Paper Publisher
This announcement was originally published by Proto Division on Steam on Oct 15, 2026.
Open the original on Steam