Update — 06.11.2026

Hey everyone!

We're preparing a major update with a map four times as large, completely reworked animations, a continuation of the story and much more. Meanwhile, we're continuing to improve the build you're playing right now. Here's what's new.

Graphics, Performance & Loading Update

Performance

• Higher FPS in dense forest on the TouchGrass preset. Global illumination now uses the lighter Balanced quality tier, and Lumen reflections on foliage are disabled in Lumen Quality reflections mode (TouchGrass and NASA presets). The visual difference is barely noticeable.
• Lower VRAM usage. Optimized many textures that previously stayed fully loaded in memory: UI textures and item icons are now compressed, while animal textures stream as needed, like the rest of the world.
• Optimized textures for characters, clothing, buildings and props. The download is smaller, and graphics cards with 6–8 GB of VRAM have more room for sharp textures.

Less stutter and faster loading

• Fixed multi-second freezes when loading saves. Loading the game, returning to the menu and entering the world could freeze for 3–4 seconds; players with large storages and warehouses could face a black screen for up to a minute. Existing saves are cleaned automatically: the first load after this update may still take a while, but loading will be fast after the next autosave.
• Loading screens now disappear as soon as the world is ready, instead of always waiting for the maximum allotted time.
• Shaders are now prepared in advance. The game ships with a shader cache, eliminating most brief stutters when new locations, effects or menus first appear.
• New “Preparing Shaders” screen. On first launch, and after game or driver updates, the game compiles shaders for your GPU and shows progress. This usually takes only a few seconds. Press “Skip” (Esc / B) to go straight to the menu; skipping may cause stutters during the first few minutes of play.
• Skipping shader preparation no longer skips the main menu's intro scene.

Visual improvements

• Shadows on distant trees no longer pop in. Distant treetops used to look fully lit until you approached them. Shadows now stay stable as you move through the forest.
• Distant treetops no longer glow. When looking toward the sun, backlit leaves on distant trees no longer shine bright green.

Settings

• Automatic graphics preset selection on first launch. The game checks your hardware once and selects a preset based on your PC's capabilities and VRAM. Existing settings are unchanged.
• Presets now use DLSS Quality instead of Auto, reducing foliage flicker.

Notes

• If you were using a graphics preset, the menu may now show “Custom”. Select your preset again to apply the updated settings.
• Higher shadow quality levels now use slightly more VRAM—up to about 250 MB extra on High/Epic—to keep distant shadows stable. There is no measurable FPS impact from this change.

NPC optimization

• NPCs now place much less load on the system. FPS should be noticeably higher near camps and during conversations.
• NPC faces are no longer animated when off-screen.
• Distant NPCs now correctly switch to simpler models instead of rendering at maximum quality at every distance.
• Max's and the Witch's hair still moves when you're nearby, but no longer adds load at a distance.
• Optimized the Witch's face so it no longer costs more to render than other NPC faces.
• Reduced VRAM usage for NPC face textures.

Main menu water reacts to animals in the intro

• Water in the main menu now reacts to the turtle and crocodile in the intro scene. Ripples form around them and a wake follows behind, just as it does for the player in water.

Inventory and menus

Fixes

• Holding TAB for 2–3 seconds used to freeze the game. Holding it no longer breaks anything: one press opens the menu and the next closes it.
• Added a safeguard against controls becoming completely locked if the menu-closing process gets stuck.

New menu animations

• Opening inventory: the tab bar slides down from above, tab buttons appear one by one, page content slides in from the side and items appear in a wave.
• Switching tabs: content slides in from the side where the selected tab is located.
• Closing inventory: panels smoothly slide back out.
• Hovering over inventory items: the slot lifts and grows while the icon tilts slightly, with a springy motion.
• Crafting: recipes and ingredients have the same hover effect. Selecting a recipe makes the large icon pop in, while the description and “Craft” button slide in from the right.

Blood and wounds

• New wound decals on enemies and animals.
• A blood pool now slowly spreads beneath a dead enemy. It grows for a few seconds, then stops. Its size depends on the body: a wolf leaves a smaller pool than a bear.
• Pools vary in shape, avoiding identical-looking pools next to each other.
• When a body is looted or disappears, the pool fades out smoothly. If the body remains, the pool disappears on its own after about 2.5 minutes.
• A maximum of 16 pools can exist in the level at once. The oldest disappear first to protect FPS.

Game menu

• Game mode cards now react to hovering: the card lifts slightly and the image zooms in.
• Click anywhere on a card to select that mode.
• The selected mode is now easy to spot: a green border surrounds the card and its button turns green with “SELECTED” on it.

Hunting: blood trails from wounded animals

• Wounded animals now leave blood trails you can track.
• More serious wounds produce denser trails and larger drops.
• Drop size depends on the animal: small for a hare, large for a bear or boar.
• Blood is visible on the ground, grass and low plants.
• Regular blood splashes from hits now land on grass too.

Forest lighting update

Visual improvements

• Removed the forest's “light at the end of the tunnel” glow. Distant trees previously stopped casting sunlight shadows too close to the player. At low sun angles, this made forest areas ahead glow bright yellow despite there being no clearing. Trees now cast shadows farther away, keeping the forest consistently shaded. Available with High shadow quality or above.
• Less glass-like shine on treetops. Distant foliage no longer shines like glass under a low sun.

Performance

• The longer tree shadow distance slightly increases GPU load. For extra FPS, set shadow quality to Medium or Low; these levels retain the previous shadow distance.