We are incredibly excited to let you know that the free Jungle Update is out for Stranded: Alien Dawn! Break out the mosquito net, pack your sunscreen and watch out for Swarm Fever, because the tropical Saltu region is now available. This new environment is teeming with unique wildlife, flora, and challenges for both you and your survivors. There are also new gameplay features coming in this update, as well as several quality of life changes and bug fixes.
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Saltu's distinctive weather and climate requires a different strategic approach to ensure the group's survival, so remember to keep a close eye on your resources and plan accordingly! New hazards like diseases and Xenoflora Blight will test your capabilities to their limit, while the heat and humidity will have an adverse effect on the shelf life of your food and crafting ingredients. The new region's divided into wet and dry seasons, each of which will have an impact on the weather you'll experience. Heavy rains will be a common sight during the wet season, while the dry season can become unbearably hot. You'll need to work your hardest to keep your survivors cool under the scorching sun.
To combat Saltu's dangerous diseases, we recommend bringing along Melody Adeyemi, the new survivor added to the game in this update. Her astounding healing skill will keep the rest of the group in tip top shape.
Area Flags and Work Areas
Using the new Area Flags and Work Areas, you'll now have greater control over where your survivors live and work. After completing the Camp Management Research, you'll be able to place down special flags to designate work zones for the survivors. All resources, work objects, and devices within the range of an Area Flag are assigned to the flag's Work Area. Survivors assigned to a specific area will only interact with things found inside their zone. They won't eat, relax, or execute tasks outside it.
The new Work Areas mechanic lets you effectively set up and manage multiple outposts across the map. You can also restrict your survivors to remain indoors during dangerous events like Toxic Ash or thunderstorms.
Survivor Tools
With the Jungle Update we're also adding an exciting new addition called Survivor Tools. These special pieces of equipment can aid your survivors in carrying out specific tasks, or aid them on their journey. All Tools are available in all regions and scenarios, and can be crafted at Workbenches. You can even use them for trade in the Trading Outpost scenario!
Let's take a look at some of the new Survivor Tools and the different ways they will aid your survivors:
- Survival Kit: A small bundle with a bedroll and a pack of emergency rations that will ease the burden of long journeys. The Survival Kit will allow your survivors to sleep relatively comfortably outside of your base, and also enjoy a quick meal if they get hungry[/*]
- Harvesting Tools: This set of tools will reduce the amount of time it takes to harvest crops, cut down trees, and mine stone[/*]
- Respirator Mask: Sometimes your survivors need to venture outside during Toxic Ash events or Dust Storms. The new Respirator Masks will make that less of a burden on their bodies as it helps them breathe a little easier[/*]
- Signal Flares: It's difficult to see at night, so these new signal flares will light up the area of impact, making it easier for your survivors to hit enemies during the night. There may also be other ways to help your survivors see better at night, but we'll let you discover that on your own[/*]
Meet Melody Adeyemi
As with previous updates, there is a new survivor coming to Stranded: Alien Dawn with this free update. This former expert in naturopathic medicine has suddenly found herself completely cut off from any means to contact with her home planet.
Her impeccable healing skills will come in handy in the new Saltu region, as she'll never fail a healing task. Definitely helpful if your entire group is infected with Swarm Fever! Melody also has the Natural Leader trait, which will help others improve their Manipulation efficiency.
Quality of Life Additions
Your survivors can now use some leisure items to not only improve their moods, but also level up specific skills and abilities! The Bench Press will help them gain physical strength, while the brand new VR Set will boost skills based on which game they decide to play on it. This is definitely one for the survivors who are in it for the long haul, but it's the perfect tool to fill in any skill gaps they might have.
Last, but certainly not least, we're adding Super Sampling Support for NVIDIA, AMD and Intel graphics cards to Stranded: Alien Dawn. The new Photo Mode will allow you to take breathtaking screenshots, with several tweakable settings to get that one perfect shot. Adjust motion blur, exposure, depth of field and more, and unleash your inner photographer!
Don't forget to join the Stranded: Alien Dawn Discord and you'll never miss any news! You can also follow the game on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, or join the discussions on Steam and the Frontier Forums.
Now onto the changelog:
All console versions are v1.10.230626
PC/Steam and PC/Epic are v1.10.230627
Key new features & content
- Saltu region - A new jungle-inspired biome, featuring new plants, animals, swamps, rivers and beaches[/*]
- A new survivor, Melody Adeyemi, a talented healer and natural leader[/*]
- New expeditions and adversity, including crop disease, tropical diseases and extreme heat/humidity which makes perishable resources decompose faster while cooling devices will consume more power[/*]
- New core gameplay features include Area flags, Tools, new relaxation devices and more[/*]
- New photo mode[/*]
- New Super Sampling support for PC versions of the game[/*]
- Additional music[/*]
- Three new achievements/trophies[/*]
- Bug fixes and more[/*]
Camp management & Area flags
Researching camp management unlocks the ability to construct, place and name an area flag. Survivors can then be assigned to, and will reside and work within, the area of the flag.
- The survivor that constructs an area flag is automatically assigned to that flag after the construction is complete[/*]
- Each survivor's assigned area is displayed in their info panel, which also provides buttons for "Go to flag" and "Change area"[/*]
- When applicable, survivor portraits are now colour-coded, and sorted by assigned areas[/*]
- Survivors are also sorted by area in the activities menu and in the schedule menu[/*]
- A direct order to "Assign to Area X" is available when interacting with a device that is located within an area that the applicable survivor is not assigned to[/*]
Each survivor's inventory now includes a dedicated tool slot, allowing for one tool to be equipped and used automatically in most cases when needed. Research toolsmithing to unlock the ability to craft basic tools, and in turn reveal research topics necessary to unlock the ability to craft advanced tools.
Basic tools
- Survival kits contain a bedroll and emergency rations, enabling survivors to venture further afield without needing to return to base to eat and sleep[/*]
- Harvesting tools reduce the time taken to harvest, cut, and mine[/*]
- Good luck charms are a small trinket that grants their carrier a happiness boost[/*]
- Respiratory mask allows survivors to breathe easier during dust storms and toxic ash [/*]
- Electromagnetic umbrella, a personal force field that prevents its carrier from getting soaked by rain and/or being struck by lightning[/*]
- Night goggles improve the survivor's vision and aim in the dark[/*]
- Signal flares* can be thrown to illuminate the area of impact, making it easier to aim and hit a target in the dark[/*]
- Grenades* can be thrown by survivors to deal damage to the area of impact, stun, and potentially take out multiple enemies with each Grenade[/*]
New adversity that survivors can encounter in the Saltu region
- Monsoon rains and violent thunderstorms make it very likely for survivors to be soaked when outside, and/or for lightning to strike survivors, animals, and devices[/*]
- Heat and humidity cause perishable resources to decompose faster, and cooling devices to consume more power than they will in other regions [/*]
- Xenoflora blight is an airborne silent assassin that kills healthy plants and spreads like wildfire if the diseased plants are not cut down to keep it under control[/*]
- Swarm fever is a new disease unique to the Saltu region, which can only be cured with antibiotics[/*]
- Gut worms are a new disease that survivors might encounter after eating raw foods, which can only be cured with antibiotics[/*]
- Blood infection - Bleeding survivors can develop a blood infection, which causes pain and increases their rest loss. Left untreated, blood infections can become mild anaemia or worst of all, chronic anaemia[/*]
- Insect nests - The Saltu region features huge mantis/scissorhands nesting areas that yield Silicon and are unique to this territory[/*]
- Players that are used to acquiring carbon nanotubes from Shrieker nests, may find it more challenging to acquire this resource in Saltu, but valid strategies include using the 3D printer or taming a Broodmother Shrieker[/*]
Photo mode
- hen pausing the game, you will now be able to select 'Photo Mode', where it is possible to freely place the camera control and set a variety of graphic settings and photo filters to take beautiful screenshots. Be sure to take note of all the controls that are noted in order to get to grips with them[/*]
- For PC versions of the game, popular Super Sampling algorithms; FSR 2, DLSS 2 and XeSS are now supported. See Options > Video > Antialiasing[list]
- If electing to enable Super Sampling, please ensure you have the most recent video card drivers and if you are using older drivers be aware that the option for DLSS 2 might not be unlocked[/*]
- In addition to enabling Super Sampling, it is also possible to adjust the render scale to balance visual quality and performance. See Options > Video > Resolution Percent[/*]
Improvements & revisions to existing features & content
Survivors
- Adjusted looping animations and cooldowns when survivors are shooting a firearm[/*]
- Survivors can now shoot through force field barriers[/*]
- Adjusted animation when survivors are aiming upwards or downwards[/*]
- Survivors no longer get the "Slept next to my love +9" happiness bonus when the two beds are separated by a wall[/*]
- Reduced research time for solar panels, wind turbines, diesel generators, refrigerators and energy storage[/*]
- Brick fence is now unlocked after acquiring bricks, instead of after researching "Brick rooms", making it consistent with the way that other fence types are unlocked[/*]
- Emergency rations can now be made using any cooked meals, instead of requiring tasty meals[/*]
- Adjusted consistency of placement for hydroponic racks and fortifications, so they are less likely to penetrate the ground and cannot be placed on top of spaceship debris[/*]
- Improved consistency of obstruction logic when placing wall lights[/*]
- A landing spot can no longer be placed on a weak-support floor that is marked for reconstruction with a strong-support material[/*]
- When placing the food fabricator and material fabricator, the direction they are oriented towards is now indicated[/*]
- The 'Repair' logic for buildings now factors in doors and windows that might also be destroyed when a wall is damaged[/*]
- Energy crystals can now be grown in hydroponic racks[/*]
- After a survivor has been assigned to a mech, the applicable survivor's info panel now features a "Board Mech" button[/*]
- Various improvements on mechs' behaviour when leaping[/*]
- Survivors no longer get "Soaked Wet" after they have boarded a mech[/*]
- A mech operator's health is now indicated via a red coloured health bar in their info panel, and a blue-coloured health bar is shown below the applicable survivor's portrait and over the mech, indicating the health of the mech[/*]
- For PC versions of the game, the construction buttons for 'Move", "Copy", "Reconstruct", and "Deconstruct" have been moved from the right side of the info panel to the bottom of the info panel[/*]
- When possible, tamed animals will run when they are drafted, just as survivors do[/*]
- Broodmother shriekers remain pacified for a little longer, providing more time for survivors to attempt to tame them[/*]
- Female Tecatli now interact correctly with and eat from feeders[/*]
- After taming a Juno demolisher, they now receive a health bonus for being tamed, which is consistent with other animals being tamed[/*]
- Fixed logic that occasionally resulted in some animals sleeping instead of attacking[/*]
- Survivors that travel to discover the "Burning cruise vessel", "Security signal" and "Distress signal" expeditions only have the possibility to find other survivors if taking place in the crash landing scenario[/*]
- Fixed an issue that caused a missing outcome in the "Loud bang" expedition, after electing to "Search the place thoroughly"[/*]
- Expedition notifications no longer remain active after the survivor returns with the balloon[/*]
- If a tutorial is invoked from within a scenario that is being played out after electing to Pause, a new "Return to scenario" button has been added to the Pause menu[/*]
- Within activities, switching from advanced priorities to simple priorities now resets the priorities to 3 for everyone[/*]
- Adjusted the consistency of the icons displayed when a survivor is planting crops[/*]
- All resources that are reserved to be picked up by a survivor are now correctly indicated as "Reserved by"[/*]
- Loading screens are now specific to the applicable region[/*]
- Other minor UI fixes[/*]
- Added electronics to the starting resources[/*]
- The trading GUI now provides the ability "Buy all" and "Sell all"[/*]
- When resources are no longer available to complete a trade, a "Can't trade" notification is shown[/*]
- Adjusted the crafting cost of the pulse rifle and pulse rifle 2.0[/*]
- Fixed rare issue that caused save files to become corrupted and unable to load[/*]
- Additional optimisations to improve performance & stability[/*]
- Adjusted consistency of unlocking the achievements/trophies named "True Solo", "Four walls, a floor and a roof", "Getting the hang of it" and "Millionaire in the making"[/*]
- Fixed a rare blocking issue in the "Rooms" tutorial[/*]
- Adjusted FOV to better fit 21:9 and 4:3 screen resolutions.[/*]
- Minor improvements to various art, animation audio and text[/*]
- Revised entities blending to improve overall performance for players using mods[/*]
- Cheat overlays now close automatically after quitting the modding test map, or after starting a new game[/*]
- Author name now uses the creator's Steam username, instead of displaying as "unknown"[/*]
- Localisation IDs no longer change when mods are updated[/*]
- Mod items with reciprocal properties (character relationships, traits and health condition incompatibility) are now automatically set[/*]
- Improved the function for copying from original presets in the mod items [/*]
- Mod preview images are now required to be in .png format, ensuring the source image is correctly displayed[/*]
- Fixed issues with mods sorting order and sorting persistency[/*]
- Added a cheat on the modding test map: cheatLightRange, to enable the light overlay[/*]
- Added a cheat on the modding test map: Template (in the object's info panel). When selected, the editor is invoked and the original game values for the desired preset will open[/*]
- Added new mod items named 'ModItemFont' and 'ModItemTextStyle' that enable the ability to add new fonts and replace existing ones[/*]
- Implemented improved error handling for the blender exporter [/*]
- Adjustments on SearchLight preset to add custom light FX[/*]
- Fixed the "Sing" relaxation activity sample mod[/*]
- Uploading mods to the Steam Workshop does not edit the mod visibility in the Steam Workshop[/*]
