Client 49.8

Co-op and local worlds

• Co-op hosting: host any of your local worlds for Steam friends with Host with friends on the world's card. Friends join from the Steam friends list or an invite, with no address to share and no port to open. Up to four players share a world, and each friend keeps their own survivor and inventory in it. The pause menu has Invite friends and a panel showing each player's connection; a poor connection shows a distance warning.
• World settings: the Play Offline page has a World Settings panel for a new world, and a Settings button on every world. Pick Explorer, Survivor or Hardcore, or set hunger, thirst, damage, people, wildlife, day and night length and loot respawn yourself. Changes to an existing world are made while it is closed and apply the next time you open it.
• World mode for local worlds: each local world has a World Mode, PvP or PvE. New worlds start as PvP, so friends you host can fight and raid each other. Choose PvE to protect every player, their bases, stashes and bodies from other players; people, animals and the world stay dangerous. The survival preset you pick doesn't change it.

AI and wildlife

• Animal behaviour: dangerous animals are less predictable. At low health they sometimes run and sometimes fight to the death, and a runner may come back for another charge or escape for good. Bears and stags bluff charges, wolves flank in packs and stalk you at night, wolves and boars wait in cover to ambush you, and a cornered boar or bear can fly into a rage. Predators guard a kill and follow a bleeding player's blood trail. Animals bite while they keep running at you, so you no longer gain distance between bites.
• Animal balance and headshots: dangerous animals take more to kill, so you feel at least a couple of bites before a spear finishes one: wolf 150 health, stag 175, boar 180, bear 360. A shot to an animal's head does double damage, and a head shot on an animal that hasn't noticed you counts as a critical. A pack has at most two wolves biting at once, and a bear charges in a fast burst, then tires, so a bow rewards good timing. Bites on a moving target come a little slower.
• Bears: a bear that reaches you during its charge lunges and bites.
• Idle animals: undisturbed animals graze, chew, rest, sleep at night, sniff for food, look around, groom and sit, and quietly eat. An animal with its head down notices you later.
• Crows: crows sometimes make a low raking pass, circle low before a swoop, or land to sit on rocks, crates, posts, walls and cars until you come close or hit them.

World, traders and map

• Traders: town traders now work from inside buildings, and there are more of them, spread across the map: most trading towns have a General trader and a specialist, and two towns that sit close together share one General and three specialists between them. Farm and military traders stay where they were. Hunter traders also buy deer antlers and fish nets.
• Trader access: new locks cannot be fitted to doors in trader buildings. Existing locks keep working and can still be removed.
• Trading amounts: click the quantity box at a trader, type the amount and press Enter to add it to the deal.
• Map water: lakes, rivers and the sea show as muted blue with a slightly darker shoreline on the world map and the mini map, at every zoom, instead of the tan and green of the ground beneath them. Water stays hidden under the fog until you explore it, the same as the land around it.
• Power line towers: you can walk under a power line tower between its legs; only the steel frame blocks you now.
• Felling trees: a felled tree tips over its stump instead of jumping up out of the ground.
• Translations: place names, map markers, job places, station names and many labels that showed in English or as raw names now appear translated. Proper names such as towns stay as they are.

Combat and movement

• Vaulting: you can vault over low railings and fences however they are built, including ones with a drop or water on the far side: you go over and fall as normal. When a vault is refused, a short message says why, such as too high or something in the way.
• Falling: you take fall damage from about 2.5 m, and a leg can break sooner. A 4 m drop costs about 5 health.
• Landing: landing a sprint forward from a height rolls you through it, taking less damage and keeping your momentum. A drop of 4 m or more dips the view in first person, and 6 m or more, or a broken leg, makes you stumble: you are slow and can't jump or sprint for a moment.
• Scopes: aiming through a magnified scope kicks the view wider with each shot, in step with the weapon's recoil, then settles back. Heavy rifles kick clearly harder than light ones.
• Hiding at night: a lit torch, lighter, flashlight or helmet lamp gives you away to an enemy that is searching for you and can see you, even if you are hidden. Walls still block their view.
• Free Look: Free Look works while you hold a gun. Aiming ends it.
• Bleeding: blood comes from the wound itself instead of always from the same spot, on you, enemies and bodies.
• Punches: punching stone, concrete, brick, tile, asphalt or gravel sounds like a knock instead of a footstep.
• Arrow recovery: pulling arrows from a body reports how many you took in one notice, and why any stayed behind.

Inventory, building and crafting

• Placing items: a lock follows your aim and shows red where it can't go, instead of sticking to the last chest or door. Stations and other floor-standing parts show red or green wherever you aim and no longer snag on other parts. Campfires, stations and other floor-standing parts can stand right against the walls of town buildings, and low rubble no longer blocks them.
• Hammer: the hammer shows a part's strength level, Wood, Stone or Metal, in its title.
• Station fuel: stations with a fuel slot have a ? beside it that lists the fuels the station burns and where to find propane. Propane recipes show the item's name.
• Weapon repairs: repaired weapon condition updates in the inventory and tooltip without dropping and picking up the weapon.
• Inventory: dragging a rotated item turns its icon as well as its shape. The inventory only fades while an enemy can see you or just after an enemy hurts you, not from hunger, bleeding or an enemy that can't see you.
• Equipping from the ground: with a full bag you can still equip clothing or gear lying on the ground: what you were wearing in that slot drops where the new item lay.
• Skills: in the Skills constellation, drag or use the left stick to pan, scroll or use the right stick to zoom, and Reset View brings back the whole map.