Update 6.0: The Jump Is Live

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Caretakers,

The arch.

Perhaps you’ve strolled past it for 20 hours. Perhaps 50. Perhaps far longer.

With Update 6, it finally powers up.

It has a destination.

It opens.

PROJECT CROSSING is underway.

The first working Transfer Gate links Lazarus Complex to North Bastion, a frozen mountain region where the main story carries on, the cold becomes a genuine threat to your survival, and Anna begins to recognize things she has no reason to remember.

Oddly enough, this is our eighth Early Access update, even though it’s labeled Update 6.0. Two bonus updates slipped in along the way, because the content was ready and we saw no reason to keep you waiting.

▶ Watch the Update 6.0 trailer:

▶ Full patch notes: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1783560/discussions/0/564797030489213918/

▶ Discord: https://discord.gg/channel37

The Last Caretaker is also 20% off until October 25.

THE QUICK VERSION FOR HUMANS

PROJECT CROSSING is live. The arch is a Transfer Gate, and its first route leads to North Bastion.
North Bastion is open. Explore a new frozen mountain region complete with its own dock, hangar, central spire, facilities, infrastructure, records, loot, enemies, and story.
Cold has consequences. Low temperatures slow the Caretaker down and inflict damage.
Build your own warmth. Small, medium, and large heaters, a boiler, the Methane Extractor, and single-use methane canisters are now essential to survival.
Ice bars the path. Melt it with heat or smash your way through.
Anna’s story goes on. North Bastion remembers her. Anna doesn’t remember North Bastion.
Your machines respect your time. Systems now catch up far faster when you leave a location and come back.
The Gyrocopter handles better, with sharper steering and improved vertical control.
Better exploration tools. Custom map markers, cursor-based zoom on the map and Grid Scanner, clearer hidden connections, and more informative module socket details.
New accessibility options arrive with a dedicated Accessibility tab and Motion Comfort settings.
Performance has improved, with less stutter while exploring and smoother play around large numbers of enemies, cables, and modules.
A huge batch of fixes. Saves, quests, gates, vehicles, ladders, enemies, cables, modules, visuals, audio, collision, progression, and crashes all got another thorough pass.

THE LONGER VERSION FOR CARETAKERS

PROJECT CROSSING

That arch was never mere decoration.

The structure at Lazarus belongs to PROJECT CROSSING, an ancient network of Transfer Gates designed to join registered locations across vast distances.

Update 6 launches the quest to uncover what it is, restore it, supply what it needs, enter a valid destination address, and complete the first crossing.

The first link runs from Lazarus Complex to North Bastion.

This isn’t a fast-travel shortcut tucked away in a menu. The Gate exists in the world. It demands power. It has an address. It comes with systems, hardware, requirements, and a real, physical destination.

Once a Gate is open, its console also offers a Recall option, letting you return to your point of origin without paying for another crossing.

You can even bring a vehicle along.

The world just got easier to reach.

And a good deal stranger.

NORTH BASTION

North Bastion is a new snow-covered mountain region, centered on one of the largest facilities we’ve added to the game so far.

The area features a dock, hangar, central spire, industrial spaces, utility infrastructure, interior facilities, tunnels, frozen rooms, records, loot, enemies, and fresh story content.

The main quest picks up here.

North Bastion is more than just another place to scavenge.

It transforms what the environment is capable of doing to you.

SURVIVE THE COLD

Cold is now a true gameplay system.

When temperatures drop low enough, the Caretaker moves more slowly and starts taking damage. The HUD displays the temperature once conditions turn dangerous.

To stay alive, you can build:

Small Heater
Medium Heater
Large Heater
Boiler
Methane Extractor
Single-use Methane Canisters

Each heater differs in strength, range, and efficiency.

Areas you manage to warm up now stay warm, rather than gradually losing that progress.

The Flamethrower and Flame Pistol also generate heat, giving your existing gear a new purpose.

The cold seeps into the environment as well. Certain passages are sealed by ice and must be melted with heat or broken open by force.

Even the Gyrocopter suffers in extreme cold.

It turns out that flying a machine into a frozen mountain comes with consequences.

ANNA

Anna recognizes North Bastion.

She shouldn’t.

For dozens of hours, she has been a voice keeping the Caretaker company across the world. In North Bastion, that relationship shifts.

Expect new records, new voice-over, new interactions, and a significant continuation of her story.

You may finally get to meet her.

What happens afterward, we won’t say.

Head north.

SYSTEMS SHOULD KEEP WORKING WHEN YOU’RE NOT WATCHING

This change came straight from player feedback.

Once you’ve built a functioning production system, you shouldn’t have to stand next to it waiting for it to finish its job.

Modules now catch up much more quickly after you’ve been away from a location, all without dragging down the game’s performance.

This applies across your systems, not just a single machine.

Build something that works.

Walk away.

Go do something else.

Return.

It should have been working the whole time.

GYROCOPTER AND VEHICLES

Gyrocopter handling has been through another major overhaul.

Vertical control is improved.

Steering is improved.

The Gyrocopter can now be shut off while on water.

Cold temperatures can hamper rotor performance.

We’ve also fixed a number of vehicle, save-position, camera, audio, and interaction issues.

And yes, you can fly through an active Transfer Gate.

We tested it.

MAP, GRID SCANNER AND BUILDING

The world map and Grid Scanner now zoom toward your cursor, rather than just the center of the screen.

You can now place and remove your own markers on the world map.

The Grid Scanner makes hidden connections and groups easier to read.

When placing modules, sockets now indicate:

Which resource they use
Which way that resource flows

Resource balancing between modules now works by percentage rather than by fixed amounts.

Quest items now have a dedicated category in the Fabricator and build menus.

You can build on door frames.

Newly fabricated objects can optionally be placed facing you.

Dismantling and repairing are also harder to interrupt by accident.

Recyclable items now display how long recycling takes and how much electricity it consumes.

ACCESSIBILITY AND MOVEMENT

A new Accessibility tab now appears in the options menu.

It includes new Motion Comfort settings.

Ladders have also received one extraordinarily advanced piece of technology:

Crouch while climbing down and you slide.

Humanity survived long enough to invent this.

COMBAT AND ENEMIES

Enemy navigation and engagement have been refined, including their ability to spot and pursue the player from greater distances.

Sharks now properly attack in melee.

Felis pathfinding has been improved.

Laserbobs no longer release a swarm after they’re already dead.

Sea mines are dealing damage again.

The drone light is more effective against the night swarm.

Several hit, damage, destruction, egg sack, tentacle, and growth effects have been polished as well.

Freezing regions also influence which creatures can survive there.

PERFORMANCE

Update 6 brings another substantial round of performance work.

Stutter during exploration has been reduced.

Gameplay runs more smoothly around large numbers of:

Enemies
Cables
Modules

Several major sources of lag have been eliminated, including oxygen generators and switching control between the Caretaker, drones, and vehicles.

Further work went into world streaming, environment systems, combat processing, temperature simulation, fog, materials, and rendering.

Our goal hasn’t changed: keep growing the game without making the older world heavier each time.

VISUAL AND AUDIO IMPROVEMENTS

Underwater visuals look better, with fog and lighting responding more naturally to depth.

Weather audio has been refined.

Fog behaves more convincingly indoors.

High-quality fog is smoother.

Issues with Low and Medium fog quality have been resolved.

Maximum HDR peak brightness has been raised to 4000 nits.

Snow, frost, ice, surfaces, waves, explosions, impacts, and a number of environmental materials have received extra attention.

Loudspeakers now feature updated recordings and playlist support.

Quest voice-over is more consistent, and overlapping voice lines have been cut down.

FIXES, FIXES, AND MORE FIXES

Resolved several crashes, including those that occurred while saving or loading damaged saves.
Resolved severe lag caused by Oxygen Generators.
Resolved severe lag when switching control to or from drones and vehicles.
Resolved graphics settings failing to update properly after a graphics card change.
Resolved some graphics settings not being saved.
Resolved the Vessel of Tomorrow engine cylinder task failing to complete.
Resolved the Rollerboi Factory quest getting blocked on older saves.
Resolved First Light quest steps being left unfinished.
Resolved First Light failing to complete when several Lumilite Fabricators were placed.
Resolved whales not spawning after their quest was completed.
Resolved multiple ladder collision and movement issues.
Resolved free look not working correctly on ladders.
Resolved the Caretaker getting stuck after switching from a ladder to a drone or vehicle.
Resolved the boat’s position not always saving correctly.
Resolved water appearing inside the boat.
Resolved the boat map marker displaying at the wrong size.
Resolved Copper Scraps taking too long to recycle.
Resolved Eden tiles returning the wrong item or quantity when dismantled.
Resolved the Rhino Dismantler being able to dismantle Gyrocopter and JetSki containers.
Resolved Fabricators draining power when required parts were missing.
Resolved stowed items not being restored correctly.
Resolved cables tugging on stowed items.
Resolved the Recycler processing items stored on your back.
Resolved fruit grow timers failing to update.
Resolved pears growing upside down.
Resolved fruit showing a pick-up prompt before it had finished growing.
Resolved sharks failing to attack in melee.
Resolved Felis units getting stuck while moving.
Resolved Laserbobs spawning a swarm after death.
Resolved egg sacks taking damage from attacks that missed them.
Resolved the shadows of destroyed egg sacks remaining visible.
Resolved Sea Mines not dealing damage.
Resolved dropped items failing to float underwater.
Resolved Glowsticks not working underwater.
Resolved stretched cables and incorrect cable-transfer visuals.
Resolved connected Power Triodes becoming impossible to remove after loading.
Resolved Bot Heal Station issues.
Resolved incorrect Recovery Grinder electricity consumption.
Resolved trash spawning inside boats.
Resolved night-swarm trash lingering indefinitely.
Resolved the character jittering while turning.
Resolved the character facing the wrong way when entering the Gyrocopter.
Resolved JetSki sound and smoke issues.
Resolved sounds continuing to play after they should have stopped.
Resolved cloud-shadow flickering near the horizon.
Resolved broken materials across several items, modules, generators, sleeping bags, posters, and the Caretaker.
Resolved food appearing too dark on Low graphics settings.
Resolved save import not opening the correct dialog from the New Game menu.
Resolved several loudspeaker playback issues.
Resolved several missing or incorrect materials.
Resolved several quest, progression, collision, save, and world-state issues uncovered during Community Alpha and Beta.
Resolved loudspeaker events occasionally landing in the playback queue before the event responsible for scheduling them had run.
Resolved several material-state records holding valid references to objects that had never existed in the current save.
Resolved Anna asking why we keep rewriting this line.

[c]Anna: please stop fixing me[/c]

There’s more.

That’s why the full patch notes link exists:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1783560/discussions/0/564797030489213918/

FEEDBACK

We keep reading Steam Discussions, Discord reports, crash data, Community Alpha and Beta feedback, and reports submitted through the game.

A great deal of Update 6 comes directly from that input.

Production catch-up is one example. Players made it abundantly clear that after building a working system, standing beside it waiting for resources wasn’t exactly thrilling gameplay.

We agree.

So we changed the system.

The same goes for movement, performance, Gyrocopter handling, map usability, UI readability, quest blockers, and hundreds of smaller details that are far easier to spot once thousands of people are living inside the game.

If something breaks, the most helpful reports still include: