DREGS 1.0 Is Here!

DREGS 1.0 Is Here!

DREGS is officially leaving Early Access today! And this isn't just another update. We've fundamentally changed what DREGS is about, how you play it, and, most importantly, how we want you to feel while playing it.

A few weeks ago, we shared our plans to rethink the core experience of DREGS. Today, we're delivering on that promise, including one more major change that we haven't talked about until now. There is a LOT to cover, so let's get into it.

Why We Changed DREGS

When we launched DREGS into Early Access, we had a game that we knew could be a lot of fun with friends. Exploring abandoned spaceships, solving ridiculous puzzles, encountering horrifying creatures, and watching your friends meet increasingly unfortunate ends made for some pretty memorable moments. But something wasn't quite right. We spent time talking to players who enjoyed DREGS, but we also sought out people who we thought should enjoy it, yet had decided not to play it. The feedback was illuminating.

While players generally liked what they saw, many felt DREGS looked too similar to other co-op games they already owned. The familiar loop of entering a dangerous location, collecting valuable junk, and escaping before time runs out wasn't offering them something different enough to justify picking up another game. And we agreed.

We also heard something else, particularly from people who had already played DREGS: the mission timer was making the game stressful in a way that wasn't necessarily fun. Players wanted to explore, experiment with the environments, solve puzzles, and generally mess around with their friends without a clock constantly telling them to hurry up.

That got us thinking about what made DREGS special in the first place. It wasn't the junk. It wasn't the timer. It was the derelicts themselves, the strange things you could do in them, and the hilarious situations that arose when a group of friends tried to work together.

So we decided to keep everything we loved about DREGS and build a different game around it.

From Salvaging to Cleaning and Restoration

This is the big one.

You're no longer primarily a crew of scavengers trying to grab as much junk as possible. You're now a crew tasked with cleaning up and restoring horribly infested derelict spacecraft.

And what better way to deal with a horrifying alien fungal infestation than with a flamethrower? Yes. Everyone gets a flamethrower now.

When you board a derelict, you'll find that it's already overrun with xeno-fungal growths, which we've been calling Creep. Previously, this infestation would spread as you spent more time in a mission. Now, you're arriving to find the place in a truly disgusting state. Your job is to clean it up.

Armed with your trusty Monkey-Bar (part monkey wrench, part crowbar) and your new flamethrower, you'll work together to purge the infestation, restore the derelict's systems, explore its secrets, and complete the many puzzles and challenges hidden throughout.

There's something remarkably satisfying about turning a disgusting, alien-infested corridor into a relatively clean, respectable corridor. We've found ourselves spending time clearing every last bit of Creep out of rooms just because it feels good. Of course, these derelicts are still dangerous. There are still monsters, lethal machinery, traps, and an impressive number of opportunities to accidentally kill yourself or your friends. But the overall experience is different.

Instead of constantly rushing to get in and get out, we want you to enjoy the process of putting these broken places back together.

Take your time. Explore. Figure out how things work. Solve the puzzles. Set something on fire that you probably shouldn't have. It's a different kind of fun, and we think it suits DREGS much better.

A New Way to Score: Cleanliness Pays!

With the old salvage-focused gameplay taking a back seat, we needed to rethink how players were rewarded. We've introduced a new scoring system built around multipliers, and the biggest of them all is the new Creep Purge Bonus.

At the top of your screen, you'll now see a progress bar that tracks how much of the derelict's infestation you've eliminated. Every bit of Creep you burn away contributes toward filling that bar, increasing your Purge score multiplier as you go. And this isn't some tiny bonus. The Purge multiplier can reach 8x, making it the single biggest scoring multiplier in the game.

That means cleaning the derelict isn't just something to do between puzzles anymore. It's your primary objective, and the more thoroughly your crew does its job, the bigger the potential payout.

We've also introduced other score multipliers that reward exploring, completing objectives, and engaging with the derelict's systems. Some are earned by solving puzzles, while others come from collecting special objects and delivering them to your shuttle.

Loot still exists, and there's plenty of it to discover, but it's now one part of a broader scoring system rather than the entire point of the mission. We've also introduced high scores for every map, so crews who want to optimize their runs and compete for bragging rights have something to chase.

Introducing the Biohazard Incinerator

We've also added another new activity that fits our cleaning theme rather nicely. Throughout the derelicts, you'll now encounter Biohazard Incinerators. As you might expect, these machines exist to dispose of biological waste. And fortunately for you, derelict spacecraft have no shortage of biological waste.

Each Incinerator needs a specific number of corpses to complete its processing requirements. You'll have to locate bodies, carry them to the machine, and feed them in. Once you've supplied enough biomass, the Incinerator closes and rewards your crew by unlocking new quests, valuable loot, or additional score multipliers. Some of these activities introduce their own timed challenges, but unlike the old mission countdown, they're objectives you can choose to tackle as part of your expedition.

We've also made some improvements to corpse physics and handling to support this new gameplay. And just to keep things interesting, there's now a small chance that a corpse you discover isn't quite as dead as you thought. You're welcome!

Less Pressure, More Fun

Perhaps the most important change we've made isn't any particular mechanic. It's the overall pacing. The old mission countdown is gone. The mission clock now counts upward instead of counting down toward an unavoidable end.

You're free to spend more time exploring, cleaning, experimenting, and completing objectives without the entire expedition being dictated by a deadline. We've retained and rebalanced time-based scoring for crews who enjoy being efficient, but the experience is no longer built around rushing everyone toward extraction.

We wanted to create something that was satisfying and relatively relaxing to play with friends. Not safe , mind you. You're still an expendable clone working inside a haunted spaceship full of things that want to kill you. But now the game gives you room to enjoy all the absurdity.

And here's something else worth mentioning: you can fight back now. We've made all of our currently shipped creatures killable, giving crews more ways to handle threats instead of always having to run away. Some enemies will eventually respawn, so don't get too comfortable. We think this helps make the environments feel like places you can gradually reclaim, rather than simply survive.

Everything You Loved Is Still Here

One of our biggest goals throughout this redesign was to avoid throwing away the elements that already made DREGS fun.

The elaborate environmental puzzles? Still here.

Locked areas, secret rooms, bizarre machinery, and questionable engineering decisions? Absolutely.

The dangerous creatures, traps, and things that will inevitably go wrong when four friends try to accomplish a simple task together? We wouldn't dream of removing those. We've even added new maps and continued improving the existing ones.

What we've changed is the reason you're there and the pace at which you experience everything.We think the result is a game with a much stronger identity and a more satisfying cooperative experience. And we're excited for you to try it.

DREGS 1.0 Full Patch Notes

This is a substantial update. The following are the major additions, changes, improvements, and fixes since our previous release.

New Gameplay & Major Changes

• New Flamethrower: All players now start equipped with a flamethrower in addition to their existing tools. It persists through death, and its fuel automatically replenishes over time.
• New Cleaning & Restoration Gameplay: Purge xeno-fungal Creep from derelicts using your flamethrower.
• Fully Infested Missions: Derelicts now begin missions with their infestation already established, rather than having Creep gradually grow throughout the expedition.
• New Creep Purge Score Multiplier: Burning away Creep fills a progress meter on your HUD, increasing your score multiplier up to 8x.
• New Corpse Incinerators: Collect and dispose of corpses to unlock rewards, objectives, and additional scoring opportunities.
• New Score Multiplier System: Complete challenges and deliver special multiplier objects to new deposit points aboard your shuttle to increase your final score.
• New High Scores: Every map now tracks your crew's high score.
• Mission Timer Overhaul: The mission clock now counts upward instead of counting down.
• Combat Changes: All currently shipped creatures can now be killed.
• New Difficulty Unlock Kiosk: Higher difficulties are now unlocked through purchases at the kiosk rather than the previous system.

Flamethrower & Fire Mechanics

• Flamethrower fuel automatically regenerates.
• Players move more slowly while firing the flamethrower.
• Creep, zombies, scorpions, and various environmental objects can be set on fire.
• Volatile objects heat up when exposed to flames and can eventually explode.
• Oxygen tanks are now flammable.
• Creep Poppers explode after taking sufficient fire damage.
• Flames now properly collide with environmental surfaces instead of passing through walls.
• Flamethrower effects and hit detection have been improved for more accurate multiplayer behavior.
• Improved burning animations and visual feedback for players, creatures, and Creep.
• Lasers can now set objects on fire and burn away Creep.
• Flamethrowers are no longer lost when picking up other equipment.
• Fixed a bug that allowed dead players to continue firing their flamethrowers.

Scoring, Rewards & Progression

• Completely reworked the end-of-expedition scoring summary to support the new multiplier system.
• Replaced the old expedition fees presentation with bonuses.
• Added dedicated shuttle deposit points for score multiplier objects.
• Added Creep Purge progress tracking to the HUD.
• Added the Creep Purge multiplier to the end-of-mission results and loot deposit screens.
• Increased the maximum Creep Purge multiplier to 8x.
• Loot items now have variable values.
• Rebalanced time-based score multipliers.
• Adjusted mission scoring targets to work with the new system.
• Fixed score multipliers failing to appear in certain crates.
• Rebalanced various shop prices, including hats, backpacks, and consumable slots.
• Added more previously unavailable items to the shop.
• Sweepo now has a small chance to drop the Tiny Topper Hat.

New Maps & Level Improvements

New Maps

• Artemis: A new small, symmetrical fighter/bomber-class derelict featuring puzzles, security hazards, and environmental challenges.
• Triton: A new derelict featuring its own hazards, exploration opportunities, and a puzzle to restore the ship's lighting.

Existing Maps

• Kronos: Added corpse collection gameplay. Fixed and improved the controls for disabling the laser grid. Fixed an issue with the alien area.
• Demeter: Added Corpse Incinerator gameplay, reward crates, and openable hatch doors in the research wing.
• Plutus: Added corpse collection and incinerator gameplay. Fixed destruction triggers.
• Tethys: Added corpse collection gameplay and fixed an incorrectly placed alien crate.
• Athena: Added corpse gameplay. Fixed a missing score multiplier, with the 4x multiplier now awarded for delivering a Vola-core.
• Hecate: Added corpse collection gameplay. Fixed floating scenery and adjusted corpse collection placements.
• Apollo: Added corpse gameplay. Fixed the broken cargo lift button and flame jet trap audio.
• Hyperion: Added corpse gameplay. Fixed the switch used to disable the mechanical arm.

Across the Derelicts

• Updated Creep placement and infestation layouts to support the new cleaning-focused gameplay.
• Improved environmental detailing, traps, and navigation.
• Updated several Creep Void respawn locations.
• Fixed Creep that could not be reached or burned.
• Purged Creep now stays destroyed rather than respawning, while Creep eggs no longer contribute toward Purge scoring.
• Fixed various environmental interactions and puzzle issues.

Creatures & Enemy Behavior

• All currently shipped creatures can now be killed.
• Spiders, Scorpions, and Gorgons respawn approximately three minutes after being killed.
• Spiders now notice players firing flamethrowers and may pursue them.
• Scorpions can now be set on fire.
• Improved enemy death effects and feedback.
• Improved Security Bot targeting.
• Fixed Scorpion damage types.
• Fixed Gorgon melee attacks being repeatedly interrupted by flame hits.
• Spiders and Gorgons can now teleport to Creep even when players aren't nearby.
• Adjusted the frequency of Creep teleporters and orbs on Danger Level 3.
• Improved zombie burning effects and visual feedback.

Corpses & Physics

• Added corpse collection, carrying, and incineration activities throughout multiple derelicts.
• Added new corpse generation and deposit systems.
• Some corpses now have a small chance of unexpectedly coming back to life.
• Improved corpse drop and throw responsiveness in multiplayer.
• Improved synchronization of corpse movement between players.
• Addressed issues that could cause corpses to fly away or appear in incorrect locations.
• Fixed problems with corpse collection and Incinerator counting.
• Improved Corpse Incinerator feedback and reward handling.

Interface & Quality of Life

• Updated the mission HUD for the new scoring mechanics.
• Added the Creep Purge progress bar and scoring feedback.
• Improved the end-of-expedition summary.
• Added a High Score accolade.
• Updated delayed-reset buttons to display countdown timers.
• Updated the gamepad control guide for improved readability.
• Controller: Cycle Gear is now mapped to Y, and Emote has moved to the left trigger. Mouse and keyboard controls remain unchanged.
• Fixed being able to switch gear while carrying an object.
• Fixed carryable objects changing size after being dropped.
• Updated the flashlight icon and added a new flamethrower icon.
• Removed unavailable maps from playlist selection.

Visuals, Audio & Performance

• Upgraded the game to Unreal Engine 5.8.1.
• Improved mirror performance by rendering mirrors only when visible and scaling their quality with graphics settings.
• Improved Spider and Scorpion material appearance so they stand out better in the environment.
• Updated poison spore cloud effects.
• Improved visual effects for fire, burning Creep, and creature deaths.
• Optimized several particle effects.
• Fixed voice chat audio quality issues when adjusting player volume.
• Improved online damage detection for enemy melee attacks and environmental hazards.
• Fixed flame hazards that had stopped dealing damage.
• Fixed other players not seeing Creep burning away.
• Additional multiplayer, stability, and gameplay fixes.

A New Beginning for DREGS

We've spent a lot of time rethinking DREGS over the past several weeks, and the result is something quite different from the game we launched into Early Access. We know that making changes this significant is a risk. Some of you enjoyed the original salvage-focused experience, and we genuinely appreciate everyone who gave that version of the game a chance.

But we believe the most important part of Early Access is being willing to learn, to challenge your own assumptions, and to make meaningful changes when you discover a better direction. We didn't want to just add more content to a gameplay loop we felt wasn't quite right. We wanted to make DREGS a better game.

Our goal now is simple: make cleaning up a haunted spaceship with your friends ridiculously satisfying and hilariously fun.

We hope you'll jump back in, try out the new gameplay, and tell us what you think. Whether you've been with us since launch or you're considering DREGS for the first time, thank you for giving our little game a chance.

Now pick up your flamethrower, those derelicts aren't going to clean themselves!

- The DREGS Development Team