Raw Metal

Released: Mar 19, 2024
Platforms
Last updated: 13 Sep 2026, 01:58 GMT

Updates & announcements

19 posts

03 Jul 2026Developer post
Forgekeeper themes added to soundtrack and a small camera fix
Hey Scavengers! Just put out a small patch to address a review: the game now forces the combat camera to start zooming out when the midpoint between the player and the guard they're targeting is closer than 5 meters. A little oopsie from the way I reworked FOV in combat, but it s
26 Jun 2026Developer post
Raw Metal 1.3.0
Hey Scavengers! We've got one last major update for ya before we move onto our next game! Sorry for the wait. Watch the devlog for a quick rundown of all the new stuff! New Animations We felt the existing six combat start animations were a bit repetitive, so I took the time to ma
Hey Scavengers!
We've got one last major update for ya before we move onto our next game! Sorry for the wait. Watch the devlog for a quick rundown of all the new stuff!
Watch on YouTube
New Animations
We felt the existing six combat start animations were a bit repetitive, so I took the time to make some more and ended up doubling the number of takedowns! Not only that, but all of the new animations are environmentally contextual, meaning they've been carefully animated and placed to interact with walls, tables, closing bulkheads, and just about anything else that's solid.
We're really happy with how these turned out, and they're sure to add a lot of variety to the gameplay loop even if it's only flair. I spent a long time animating, placing, and adjusting the frequency of these cutscenes to provide the best experience, so I hope you enjoy!
New Features
Added a screen that displays after you get scrapped, before returning to the title screen. We felt like there was a bit of a gap in the game in this department; players were abruptly booted to the title screen without their gear after losing, and this could be quite jarring. A lot of people’s first reaction to this would be “oh, it’s a roguelike,” especially if they lost before reaching the first contraband station or just didn’t realize what it was for beyond being a special-lookin’ loot chest. We hope this new screen will make things more clear to new players and provide some quality-of-life improvements to everyone.
The level you lost on is displayed, and an animation shows your gear being taken to the contraband station.
Some information about how far you got, how many guards you KO’d, etc. is displayed, similar to on the screen that appears when you extract successfully.
You can choose to immediately head back to any level you have unlocked directly from this screen, similar to the title screen’s quick start option, or you can return to the title screen like before if you want to gear up.
To keep in line with the level select UI used in the new Scrapped screen, we have removed the old UI for selecting your starting level which displayed when highlighting the “New Run” or “Quick Start” buttons and added a separate level select screen that appears either immediately after selecting “Quick Start” or after you have geared up.
Added a lightly pulsating vignette effect that appears when sneaking.
Added some new features and polish to the enemy health bars.
Added an element layered behind the normal health bar that displays when the enemy takes permanent damage, similar to the element that shows normal damage.
Health bars now shake slightly when taking permanent damage.
Sneak attack damage is now dealt in sync with an attack in the sneak attack animation—that is, after the health bar has already appeared, so that you can clearly see the damage being done, as previously it could be difficult to gauge the actual damage of sneak attacks.
A “Mission Success” screen now appears after beating the game so that you can see your stats like you usually can after extracting. The stats shown here are totals for your entire save rather than just for the current attempt. In addition to total values for all the stats that are normally displayed on the Escape Success screen, the following stats are displayed (note that these totals and new stats were not tracked in previous versions of the game, so they will be inaccurate for any saves started prior to this update):
Successful Extractions
Times Scrapped
Favorite Gear: The piece of gear you equipped for the longest amount of time.
Total Gear Investment: The amount of grymite invested into improving your gear by repairing or upgrading it.
Total Gear Value Lost: The sum value of all gear that you lost. If you retrieve lost gear from the Contraband Station, it won’t contribute to this total.
Total Haul Value: The sum of the value of all owned gear plus your owned grymite.
Added the following new style meter actions:
Auditory Provocation (angering an enemy by using a noisemaker in combat, making them attack immediately): 40 points
Concussion Grenade: 30 points (per enemy hit)
Concussed (when the player is hit with a Concussion Grenade): -30 points
Trapped Enemy (with an Electromagnet): 75 points
Trapped (when the player gets trapped in an Electromagnet): -75 points
Taser Parry (when the player parries an enemy’s taser dart): 100 points
Added a new Reset All Data option to the Data tab of the Options menu that resets all data excluding settings (the previous reset button, which keeps your unlocked tips & tutorial completion status, has been renamed to Reset Progression). Also added a Reset Settings button that resets all settings to their default values.
Added controller rumble. This feature can be toggled in the Controls tab of the Options menu. Keep in mind this feature may not work with all gamepads.
You can now replenish the armor of your owned gear in the Hideout menu accessible from the title screen for 150% the cost that it would be at the forge.
Adjustments
Improved the tutorial level by removing excess popups and text and adding clarification to certain concepts.
Prevented the player from targeting security cameras during combat since they are already disabled.
Removed the progression difficulty setting that controlled whether you are reset to the start of the current Sublevel, Layer, or to the surface, as it felt redundant with the new loss screen and caused some complications. To keep the Story Mode preset functioning the same, we’ve made it so that you will automatically restart the current Sublevel when you get scrapped if the “require keycard to extract” and “lose items when scrapped” settings are both disabled, since in that case there’s little functional difference between automatically retrying the level and having to choose to do so on the loss screen. You lose out on the option to quickly start from another level without extracting first, but we felt it was important to preserve the simplicity of Story Mode’s gameplay loop.
Some wording changes on the title screen. Notably, we’ve changed “New Run” to “Gear Up” which communicates its function better at a glance.
Changed the Quick Start button to always be available once you have started a save file, and made the Gear Up button be hidden unless you have some gear in your hideout (previously, the Quick Start button was hidden if you didn’t have any grymite or gear).
Increased the text scrolling speed for the title screen menu button descriptions.
Made the fade to black when skipping the tutorial significantly faster.
Changed tear module visual effect.
Increased style points multiplier on Normal and Easy combat difficulty presets.
All boss intro and phase 2 cutscenes can now be skipped.
Adjusted text spacing on the Escape Success screen (also applies to the new Mission Success screen).
Improved the way that combat initiation cutscenes are selected when starting combat.
Increased animation speed of bulkhead doors closing when certain combat initiation cutscenes are played.
Adjusted the animation of special bulkhead doors in Layer 3.
Minor adjustments to how the camera moves during the transition out of a combat initiation cutscene and during combat in general.
Improved manual camera movement.
Made additional guards (those that are present in combat but are not the main guard combat was initiated with) have an extra ~1.5s of attack cooldown time at the start of combat.
Increased the style points gained when hitting an enemy with a taser dart to 50 points.
Gear balance adjustments:
Decreased Grymite Boots’ and Grymite Gauntlets’ grymite cost effect.
Increased Bare Suit’s base dodge invul time effect, decreased its max effect slightly, and decreased its upgrade cost.
Changed Low Profile Armor’s effect from a guard sight range decrease to a detection rate decrease, adjusted its effect value, and decreased its upgrade cost. The effect is now always applied (previously was only while not running), but the effect is lessened when not sneaking. Also increased the number of weight mod slots from 2 to 3.
Changed Stealth Mesh Hood’s effect from a detection rate decrease to a guard sight range decrease, adjusted its effect value, and decreased its upgrade cost. This effect is more noticeable off the bat and is intended to make the HP decrease a more viable tradeoff.
Made it so Loading Brace’s effect always applies but is much stronger in fights with multiple enemies, and adjusted the effect value slightly.
Increased the effect of Ergonomic Shoes.
Slightly decreased the max effect of Streamlined Helmet as it was on the edge of increasing the dodge distance to an inconvenient degree and was too strong when combined with certain other items.
Changed Multi-Threat Targeting System and Lockdown Boots’ effects so that they apply per enemy in combat, rather than per additional enemy/vs. multiple enemies respectively. This change gives these items utility in 1v1 battles, making them viable for a wider range of builds and giving them a purpose in boss fights. As Lockdown Boots’ effect now increases cumulatively per enemy, its max effect has been decreased. Also increased the base effect value of Multi-Threat Targeting System.
Changed the effects of Warhead Gauntlets and Warhead Boots. They now both create an explosion that can hit multiple enemies in a large area when using the corresponding running attack, with the gauntlets creating a longer cone in front and the boots creating a circular blast. The blasts created by Warhead gear deal a significant amount of permanent damage to the enemy directly hit by the attack, and a smaller amount to enemies hit by the blast but not the hitbox of the attack itself. Additional knockback is also applied.
Increased base effect and decreased max effect of Rage Plate.
Added visual and sound effects for when Emergency Shock Rig’s effect activates.
Put a cap on the duration of dodge invulnerability. The way this works is that the invulnerability will be forcefully deactivated when you start an attack or another dodge (clarification: dodge invulnerability does not start instantly upon dodging, so this change does not cause subsequent dodges to lack invulnerability). Previously, it may have been possible to extend your dodge invulnerability duration using gear effects to the point where you could be permanently invulnerable by spamming dodge, particularly on Easy combat difficulty. Rather than putting a hard cap on the total time the dodge invulnerability can last, this change still allows you to become nigh-untouchable with the right build, but prevents total trivialization of the combat system.
Adjusted the curve that controls how quickly guards detect you to prevent decreased guard sight range effects from also decreasing detection speed.
Changed the increase in the volume of noise you make when moving through water from a multiplier to an additive, and made the amount by which it increases your volume lower when you are sneaking.
Removed doppler effect from all character voices to prevent unwanted pitch anomalies.
When playing on New Game+, Forgekeeper Lyla now drops gear that can otherwise only be obtained from bosses.
Changed Concussion Grenade sound effect.
Enemies who are in the process of being teleported with a Tear Module can no longer be targeted (for attacks and the taser) and can’t be hit by other Tear Modules until the teleportation is complete.
When one or both of the “Require Access Card to Extract” or “Lose Items When Scrapped” options are disabled, selecting “Gear Up” or “Quick Start” on the title screen will allow you to keep your gear and grymite from your current run, sending them back to the hideout. Also, the “Gear Up” button will become available if you have an in-progress run where you have gear/grymite, even if your hideout is empty, since you will be able to equip those items after they are sent back to the hideout.
Adjusted stick deadzone for navigating menus with a gamepad.
Toned down fog in boss training arenas.
Hid the heat indicator of a certain enemy.
Changed the input for interacting with audio logs from the kick input to the punch input.
Updated engine version.
Minor optimizations.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug where at certain points in the tutorial, such as when a popup appeared, the player’s input would get zeroed out and would not be updated properly, requiring the player to release their current inputs and press them again to continue what they were doing.
Fixed certain buttons not changing their text color correctly when being highlighted.
Fixed the “Effect Details” button prompt being displayed while gearing up or in the inventory when no gear was highlighted.
Fixed the camera getting stuck when transitioning out of a combat cutscene while using Manual camera mode.
Fixed the camera not returning to its stealth behavior when skipping the tutorial while in combat.
Fixed portions of a certain boss’ model being rendered with the dithering effect that is meant to display when a character is hidden behind an object even when they weren’t behind anything.
Fixed a certain boss transitioning between states rapidly when electrocuted.
Fixed a certain boss sometimes getting stuck in place when the player was trapped in an electromagnet.
Ensured that electromagnets that would intersect a bulkhead door have their visual effect hidden along with their model when combat starts.
Prevented guards trapped in electromagnets that would intersect a bulkhead door from staying active when combat starts.
Fixed a bug that caused the camera to sometimes be placed incorrectly in the intro cutscene.
Ensured that, in all cases where the screen fades to black, the screen fully fades out before moving on to the next action e.g. loading a level.
Fixed overlapping text when descending to the next Sublevel while the item pickup list still had items displayed.
Prevented seeing inside the bulkhead door meshes when the doors are opening after combat.
Fixed inconsistency in the alpha fading of elements in the elevator HUD across different resolutions.
Fixed a bug where, when starting a New Game or New Game+ without changing any of the difficulty settings from the default presets, the difficulty settings would not be saved, instead retaining whatever settings you had before starting the New Game/NG+.
Lyla’s hammer no longer mysteriously vanishes partway through a certain cutscene.
Fixed a bug where, when a combat initiation cutscene caused a character to be placed on an Electromagnet, the character would freeze in place, unable to act, at the end of the initiation.
Fixed a bug where, when combat ended, guards outside of that combat encounter trapped in an Electromagnet would not play the trapped animation.
Fixed a bug where pressing the cancel input (i.e. Escape on keyboard, B or Circle on gamepad) while the warning dialog for resetting your game data or overwriting a control scheme would close the options menu rather than the warning dialog.
Fixed bugs involving discrepancies between the processes that would occur when completing the tutorial vs. when skipping it using the “Skip Tutorial” option in the pause menu.
Adjusted the condition for Emergency Shock Rig activating so that it will no longer activate when hit with non-damaging attacks while already at 1 HP.
Fixed sound effect timing on a particular combat initiation cutscene.
Additional hit points added on lower combat difficulties now display correctly while gearing up.
Ensured that when the primary target changes during combat, enemy health bars are properly swapped while maintaining their visual state.
Ensured that the auto-dodge/auto-parry indicator always is displayed when it should be.
Prevented enemies from being pushed out of their proper positions by phantom collision during combat initiation.
Fixed a bug where guards’ sight indicators would briefly become visible in certain situations when the player wasn’t visible, such as when ending combat or loading a level.
Fixed inconsistencies in input when using the D-Pad to navigate menus.
Fixed guards playing the wrong “work” animation when combat ends.
Fixed animation transition errors with certain guard animations, which would sometimes cause a sneak attack cutscene to play out of sync.
Adjusted how the default game resolution is picked to be more accurate.
Prevented repeatedly pressing buttons on the title menu.
Thanks so much for all your support as always, Scavengers. We'll see you in the next game!
- Corrigan
Original post
21 Jul 2025Developer post
Raw Metal 1.2.3
New Features Boss 3 now has an “aura” visual effect that appears during the Standoff state to better clarify the distinction between states. Added hit VFX when the player gets hit (yes, we really forgot to do this until now). A message now appears when descending to the next Subl
New Features
Boss 3 now has an “aura” visual effect that appears during the Standoff state to better clarify the distinction between states.
Added hit VFX when the player gets hit (yes, we really forgot to do this until now).
A message now appears when descending to the next Sublevel to notify the player that the Descent Modifier (a per-run bonus that increases the quality of looted gear) has increased (the message only appears if the Descent Modifier is set to be used in the difficulty settings, i.e. on the default progression preset).
Tweaked the frequency at which Boss 4 enters stealth during its second phase, and it can now use concussion grenades to push the player back and enter stealth.
Updated demo to current version.
Adjustments
Moved the “Continue” button above “New Run” in the main menu.
Changed the elevator “Return to Surface” prompt to say “Extract” to better convey its purpose in the gameplay loop (also adjusted tips to match this wording).
Adjusted Lyla’s double swing attack startup to match the startup duration of guards’ attacks, in order to put more focus on dodging both the attack and its followup, rather than having to learn a new timing.
Boss 3’s special parry will now immediately cause the Standoff state to end if it whiffs.
Boss 3 will now immediately exit the Standoff state if hit with a taser dart.
Boss 3 will now immediately exit the Standoff state when performing a dodging counterattack. However, the time to re-enter Standoff will be decreased if Standoff was exited early.
Various optimizations that should increase performance and make frame drops less frequent (static objects, VFX preloading and pooling, etc.).
Adjusted texture and audio file compression to reduce the game’s file size and decrease memory usage.
Decreased camera shake inside the elevator to compensate for the camera’s lower FOV.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where filtering your gear by a type of gear you do not currently have would cause the menu to become stuck.
Fixed occasional pitch inconsistencies in audio clips.
Prevented acquiring the “Ghost” achievement when extracting from a Sublevel unless the player has the access card that would allow them to descend (this was an issue when playing with “Require Keycard to Ascend” turned off in the difficulty settings – you could literally get the achievement by loading into a Sublevel and immediately extracting).
Fixed Boss 2 getting stuck in place in certain situations when performing their grab attack.
Fixed a bug where the player would be unable to move if they used a Tear Module on themself right as the current Sublevel’s scene was unloaded.
Fixed a bug where the elevator UI would not reappear when entering the elevator after viewing certain cutscenes.
Fixed some inconsistencies in how guard KOs were counted.
Fixed inconsistencies in how Boss 3’s special parry triggered, preventing it from whiffing in situations where it was intended to hit, and added a vacuum effect to the first hit to ensure the player does not escape the combo.
Prevented the startup of Boss 3’s “Final Gambit” attack from being interrupted by wallsplats or tasers.
Corrected the wording of “keycard” to “access card” in the progression difficulty settings.
Made it so enemies play a hit sound effect when hit by another enemy.
Added an additional check to prevent a NavMesh check that sometimes occurred erroneously.
Fixed an error caused by entering the Forge in certain situations, in which the end of battle KO screen would play instead of the Forgekeeper’s intro cutscene.
Fixed Lyla’s attacks not being able to hit other guards.
Fixed a bug that caused Radar Guards and Elite Guards to not properly flash white while highlighted for a sneak attack.
Moved an incorrectly-placed combat start cutscene in Layer 3, Sublevel 2 that, if triggered, caused some geometry clipping.
Fixed overlapping text caused by certain messages, such as elevator terminal interaction notifications, appearing while the pickup list was still on screen.
Updated broken Twitter link on title screen (we changed our handle).
Other minor fixes.
Original post
23 Jan 2025Developer post
Raw Metal - Hotfix 1.2.2
Changelog New Features Added a “Reset All Bindings” button to the control binding menu (only available when editing custom presets). Control preset settings can now be changed when a non-customizable preset is selected. When doing this, the game will automatically switch to the f
Changelog
New Features

Added a “Reset All Bindings” button to the control binding menu (only available when editing custom presets).
Control preset settings can now be changed when a non-customizable preset is selected. When doing this, the game will automatically switch to the first available custom preset that has no changes, overwriting it with the previous preset’s settings and the new change. If all custom presets already have existing changes from the default, the player will be prompted to choose whether to overwrite the Custom A preset.
Adjustments

Slightly adjusted one of the KO screen camera angles.
Updated control glyphs for PS menu/create and share buttons.
Bug Fixes

When manually setting control prompts to PS or XB, “submit” prompts now display the correct button.
Fixed a bug that caused the “Draw!” achievement to be unobtainable.
Automatic doors in Layer 3, Sublevel 3 will now open once all guards are defeated, even if Lyla is still present in the Sublevel.
Boss 2’s health is now correctly set when changing to phase 2 or adjusting combat difficulty settings in Boss Training mode.
The control prompt to view/edit stealth difficulty settings now correctly displays for the rightmost two settings.
Deselecting an item in the inventory while discarding it now stops the discard process, even when using a mouse.
When wearing gear that decreases your max HP, armor points are no longer ignored.
Fixed a typo in the forge UI.
Lyla’s super armor flash effect now always fades out completely.
Electromagnets no longer carve out a portion of the NavMesh, which caused a variety of issues.
Fixed a logic error that caused the condition for obtaining the “Topped Off” achievement to be inconsistent.
Adjusted the size of the trigger for Lyla’s fight in Layer 3, Sublevel 3 to prevent starting combat in the forge room with another guard while Lyla is present.
The input for canceling a control rebinding is now dependent only on the currently active input device and not the type of device you are attempting to bind for.
Thanks for reading!
- Crucible
Original post
20 Dec 2024Developer post
Raw Metal - Hotfix 1.2.1
Changelog Fixed an error caused by switching targets in a fight where the enemy health bars are not visible. Corrected the positioning of the scavenger’s taser when loading into a run with gear equipped that would change its position. Teleporting a guard out of combat then gettin
Changelog

Fixed an error caused by switching targets in a fight where the enemy health bars are not visible.
Corrected the positioning of the scavenger’s taser when loading into a run with gear equipped that would change its position.
Teleporting a guard out of combat then getting into a fight not including that guard no longer causes enemy health bars to display incorrectly.
Corrected Lyla’s spawn chance in New Game+ from 75% to 50%.
Encountering Lyla on Layer 1 or 2 in New Game+ no longer softlocks the game if the appropriate tips have not yet been unlocked, instead unlocking said tips without interrupting gameplay and continuing as normal.
Potentially fixed a bug that would cause the opening cutscene to not play its camera animation.
As the input fixes in 1.2.0 resulted in an inadvertent change to when a hard attack’s input can be released without changing it to a quick attack, we’ve slightly raised the required time that you must hold an attack button to perform a hard attack.
Fixed a bug where the camera would get set to the wrong height after certain battles.
Fixed gear models appearing with lighting effects such as edge light/highlight in the inventory screen or hideout menu.
Skipping the tutorial while a tutorial popup is queued no longer displays the popup, and skipping the tutorial will always unlock the use of taser darts and the inventory.
The player can no longer be detected by radar guards while teleporting.
Corrected UI layering of health display.
Fixed a navmesh issue on Layer 3, Sublevel 1.
Original post
19 Dec 2024Developer post
Raw Metal 1.2.0
Hey Scavengers! We've got an absolutely massive update for you today just in time for the Steam Winter Sale, for which Raw Metal is 30% off! In this update, we wanted to both bring the game closer to our ideal vision, and address much of the feedback we've received from our commu
Hey Scavengers!
We've got an absolutely massive update for you today just in time for the Steam Winter Sale, for which Raw Metal is 30% off! In this update, we wanted to both bring the game closer to our ideal vision, and address much of the feedback we've received from our community so that we can make the game the best it can be.
I've put together a devlog for this occasion, which highlights and breaks down all of the major changes you'll see in this update.
Watch on YouTube
Difficulty/Progression
To address tedium and frustration with paying grymite to skip levels and having to replay levels when low on funds, we've reworked the default progression of the game. In the new default progression mode (called Descent Mode), skipping previously cleared sublevels is free, but each time you descend without extracting, you'll get a stacking loot quality bonus that incentivizes longer runs, and retains some stakes in the game without worrying about too much grind or replaying of old levels.
Since a significant number of players have found the game too difficult to enjoy, we've added several customizable difficulty settings for stealth and combat, allowing you to tweak your experience to your liking. Expand dodge/parry windows, modify what occurs upon being scrapped, increase your max health, etc. All Steam achievements are still unlockable regardless of difficulty.
We still recommend trying the game on the default difficulty on your first go round, and only lowering it if you feel it to be excessively difficult or not otherwise worth your time. Raw Metal is meant to be a challenge, but not a hair-ripping one!
New Miniboss: Forgekeeper Lyla
Your use of the forges in Katabase 6 has drawn some unwanted attention from Forgekeeper Lyla, who aims to stop your meddling with her precious workstations.
Lyla serves as a bridge between the standard guard enemies of Raw Metal and the differently-challenging boss fights, preparing the player for the jump in difficulty between the two and reducing the frustration of being thrown into a full-on boss fight before being introduced to things like enemy combos. Once the player defeats Lyla at a forge, they'll gain access to it and she'll move down to the next layer. At each layer, she'll learn one new move that foreshadows the abilities of the next boss, and prepares the player for what's to come.
We're excited to introduce this fun new character into the game, and are happy with the rivalry (and brilliant performance by Ellie Maeve) she brings to the game!
Expanded Options Menu and Rebinding
The options menu has been totally reworked with several highly requested features, such as an eye-friendly mode that reduces bright/flashing effects, a slider to reduce camera shake (or increase it, if you're a psycho), manual camera controls, slow-mo disabling, and more.
Controls are now fully customizable, including two preset layouts and three custom layouts, as well as options to modify how hard attacks are executed. You can bind them to separate keys/buttons, or bind a hard attack modifier button that turns your quick attack inputs into hard attacks while held.
New guard patrol animations, and more!
Guards now interact with their environment while on patrol! Watch them type, take notes, crouch, and lean on tables and walls. Other features include various improvements to gear visuals, airborne guards knocking grounded guards back, taser parrying, and various quality-of-life features like skipping finisher screens and detailed gear effect descriptions.
Full Changelog
Options Menu Overhaul

The options menu has been greatly expanded, organizing settings into tabs and adding many new options, including control rebinding, difficulty, and some accessibility features.
Graphics Tab: Settings that affect the game’s rendering. This includes some previous options, as well as the following new ones:

Bloom quality
Film grain intensity
Eye-friendly mode: This tones down bright/flashing effects to reduce eye strain. This has been a requested feature since launch, so we’re glad to finally offer it!
Display Tab: All-new settings to adjust the camera and HUD:

Camera shake intensity
Combat camera: Changes how the camera is controlled during combat. There are options for auto (the classic Raw Metal camera we all know and love), manual, and a combination of both, which is the new default – You can adjust the camera’s position with the mouse/RS, and if you leave it alone for a few seconds the auto mode will take over again.
Enable/disable slow-motion effects that occur during combat
Lock-on indicator: Display a lock-on reticle to indicate which enemy is currently targeted. This can be set to display all the time, not at all, or only when changing targets. The indicator will not appear when engaged in a battle with only one enemy.
Enemy attack indicator: You can disable the attack warning indicator completely or set it to only appear for off-screen enemies.
Enemy sight indicator: Allows you to disable the eye-shaped enemy sight indicator. The detection ring serves the same purpose, so not much is lost from disabling it. However, it will remain on by default as it provides additional clarity for new players.
Gadget control prompts: Affects if/when gadget control prompts are displayed. This affects the prompts on the taser/gadget icons in the bottom left/right corners of the HUD, as well as the controls that appear while aiming. You can fully enable/disable these prompts, or you can choose to only have the aiming prompts display. All prompts still appear during the tutorial, regardless of this setting.
Show enemy HP number: Display the enemy’s current HP value next to their health bar, like in Training mode. To avoid confusion, the “Damage Display” option in Training mode no longer affects this, and instead the HP values are always visible there.
Auto-skip finisher screen: Allows you to automatically skip the end-of-combat finisher screen. This does not apply to the “Scrapped” screen.
Sound Tab: Contains the already-existing sound settings. The subtitle options have changed slightly:

Instead of selecting a subtitle language, the “Subtitles” option is now just a toggle.
You can now turn on an option to display the speaking character’s name as part of the subtitle text.
Controls Tab: In-depth control scheme customization:

Unlock mouse cursor: This was a requested accessibility option, so we’ve added the ability to keep the mouse cursor unlocked during gameplay.
Camera sensitivity
Aim sensitivity multiplier: A multiplier for the camera’s default sensitivity that applies while aiming a taser or gadget.
Preset: Two official control schemes (Default and Tap Hard Attack) are built-in, and three custom slots are available for creating player-defined control schemes. Keyboard and gamepad bindings are edited separately. In accordance with the ability to rebind controls, button prompts now dynamically change to display the correct bindings.
Added optional bindings for hard punches, hard kicks, and a hard attack modifier. The first two allow binding hard attacks to tap inputs on separate buttons from quick attacks, while the hard attack modifier is a button that can be held down to turn any inputted quick attack into a hard attack.
Taser targeting: Set whether switching taser targeting modes is performed by holding or tapping Sprint (replaces the old “Hold Targeting” toggle).
Sneaking: Set whether sneaking is performed by holding or tapping Sneak.
Sprinting: Set whether sprinting is performed by holding or tapping Sprint.
Hold to hard attack: Toggles the ability to perform a hard attack by holding the punch or kick button. You can turn this off when using separate bindings for hard attacks or the hard attack modifier to avoid accidentally inputting a hard attack when a quick attack was intended.
Difficulty Tab: Allows the game’s difficulty to be adjusted on a granular level. You can customize the game to your liking, making it easier, harder, or just changing things up for a new save file!

Progression: Set how the game’s progression works.

Descent (Default): We decided that certain aspects of the game’s progression felt too frustrating and grindy, so we’ve made some adjustments to the default progression:

There is no grymite cost to skip levels.
Upgrading/replenishing/repairing gear is more expensive.
There is a cumulative Descent Modifier that increases each time you descend to the next Sublevel and resets when you end a run. This value makes the gear you find less likely to be broken, more likely to have weight and armor mods, and more likely to be a higher than average level – you are encouraged to push your luck to get better items, but getting scrapped still means your gear will be sent to the contraband station and may get… roughed up in the process.
Classic: The previous default progression mode — Getting scrapped sends your items to the contraband station and returns you to the surface. Grymite must be spent to skip Sublevels.
Story Mode: A linear progression mode with minimal stakes. Getting scrapped lets you keep your items and resets you to the beginning of the Sublevel. You can return to the surface at any time with no risk of elevator ambushes, and you can skip to any unlocked Sublevel for free.
Custom: Allows you to adjust the progression settings individually:

Require keycard to ascend: Whether a keycard is required to return to the surface.
Enable/disable elevator ambushes
When scrapped: Set whether you are reset to the beginning of the Sublevel, the Layer, or to the surface, as well as whether you lose your items when you get scrapped.
Level skip cost multiplier
Gear upgrade/replenish/repair cost multiplier
Descent modifier: Adjust how much is added to the Descent Modifier when descending to the next Sublevel.

Stealth difficulty: Adjust the difficulty of stealth gameplay.

Easy, Normal, Hard: Presets that adjust the guards’ detection range and rate, as well as the damage and bonus points of sneak attacks.
Custom: Allows you to adjust the stealth difficulty settings individually:

Multipliers for detection rate and detection range.
Sneak attack damage
Sneak attack point multiplier

Combat difficulty: Adjust the difficulty of combat gameplay.

Easy, Normal, Hard, Brutal: Presets that adjust values relevant to combat such as health and dodge/parry windows. Hard is the default and is the same as the previous version of the game.
Custom: Allows you to adjust the combat difficulty settings individually:

Additional player HP
Guard & boss HP
Sliders for setting the default active duration of your dodge and parry
Auto dodge/auto parry: Set the game to automatically dodge or parry enemy attacks. You can set this to trigger always or only when the corresponding button is held.
Style points multiplier
Heat build multiplier: Affects how often enemies block/parry.

When selecting “New Game” or “New Game+” from the title screen, players will be prompted to select difficulty settings for progression, stealth, and combat.
Note: With the exception of progression, the default difficulty settings are the same as the previous version of the game.

The Data tab contains the options for skipping the tutorial and resetting data, and a new option to switch a New Game+ save back to normal.
New Enemy: Forgekeeper Lyla

We’ve found that bosses can be a significant roadblock for our players. They demand a change in playstyle due to their attack followups and unique mechanics, making the jump in difficulty from normal combat to the first boss fight quite large. To address this, we’ve added a miniboss to teach the player how to deal with some of the things the bosses will throw at them that they might not be prepared for.
Forgekeeper Lyla (VA: Ellie Maeve) appears at the forge. Once defeated, she permanently moves down to the next Layer’s forge, gaining new abilities to help prepare the player for the next boss fight.
Once defeated on Layer 3, Lyla will stay out of your way permanently, though you can still fight her in Training mode if you so desire.
In New Game+, Lyla has a random chance of appearing at any forge, and always has her full moveset.
Added new tips regarding the game mechanics Lyla showcases that are unlocked when fighting Lyla on each Layer.
Added combat music variations that play when fighting Lyla.
Updated final cutscene and credits to include Lyla.
Other New Features

Added “work” animations to show guards carrying out tasks during their patrols.
You can now skip the end-of-combat finisher screen by pressing Pause (you cannot skip the “Scrapped” screen).
Enemy health bars now temporarily display their previous value in a darker color.
Added gear effect descriptions to make it more clear what certain effects do. These can be viewed by pressing R on keyboard, or the right trigger on gamepad. This tooltip display also shows the effect’s max value, which can give you a better idea of what you’re working toward or help you decide which gear to invest into.
Parrying enemy taser darts now deflects them in a random direction within an arc behind the Scavenger. If the taser dart is deflected toward an enemy or electronic device such as a light or camera, it will hit it. Any gear that changes the effects of your taser darts does not apply to deflected enemy taser darts.
Menus can now be navigated using WASD, with Enter to select/submit. This feature was necessitated by some other UI changes this update, but there are some instances where attempting to navigate menus this way may not work if no controls are currently highlighted. We plan to fix this in a future update.
Added a new button to the “Check Us Out” section on the title screen, linking to our Bluesky profile.
Added a lens dirt effect when a concussion grenade explosion or wallsplat occurs near the camera.
Added a new KO screen camera angle from the opposite side. The game randomly chooses between the two angles when displaying the KO screen.
Balance/Adjustments

Added a new effect to Grymite Gauntlets and Grymite Boots that grants a grymite bonus upon completing combat with a Raw rating, offsetting the cost of using these items.
Decreased the punch/kick costs of Grymite Gauntlets/Boots by 20%.
Decreased the base value of Adrenaline Mask’s “Juggle Effect” multiplier from x1 to x0.95.
Slightly adjusted the appearance of certain gear pieces.
The invulnerable duration of both dodges and parries is now capped at .5 seconds.
Decreased the slow-motion effect time of a successful parry to .5 seconds.
Removed hitstop that occurred when an enemy hit another enemy to avoid causing timing inconsistencies in group fights.
Added some slight hitstop to the player’s parry to give it extra impact.
Changed the gear info panel in the inventory to a tab view that makes it more clear that you can switch between the comparison view and the more detailed description view.
Adjusted some tips for clarity and to be up-to-date with other changes such as control rebinding.
Added additional background darkening to tutorial popups for higher text contrast.
Adjusted the positions of some voice message and access card interactables to reduce the likelihood of accidentally playing voice messages.
On Sublevels with a forge, elevator access cards now always appear in the forge.
Adjusted interrupt priorities for some boss voice lines.
Minor improvements to enemy behavior during combat, including adjustments to when and where guards decide to strafe, stopping guards from playing their walking animation when pushed up against the player, and so on.
When a launched enemy is Sent, they can now pass through other guards and will apply some knockback to any character they hit along the way.
Changed the sound effect that plays when banging on a door.
Changed the names of some gear effects to make them more concise or less confusing, or to add consistency between the way the same effect is described in multiple places. Some gear effect names have been made less descriptive in service of brevity, but this is compensated with the addition of detailed effect descriptions.
Slightly adjusted certain camera animations.
Adjusted the appearance of scrollbars in the UI to be more in line with the game’s design language.
Slightly decreased the forward motion of enemies falling from an aerial wallsplat (in an effort to reduce the likelihood of landing in an unintended position and getting stuck).
Decreased grounded knockback of Running Punch and increased its forward movement to emphasize its utility for passing through enemies.
Optimization improvements.
Bug Fixes

Holding the Run button while stationary no longer prevents you from attacking.
The second boss’ max HP in their second phase now receives the 1.25x multiplier in New Game+.
Fixed the way that the “Max HP” gear effect is applied so that the player’s “real” current health is maintained and not reduced by equipping these gear pieces. This also prevents the player from reducing their HP to 0 outside of combat in New Game+.
The player can now take damage from Electromagnets (using Static Overcharger) during stealth in New Game+.
Damage dealt by Electromagnets (using Static Overcharger) no longer depletes the Electromagnet’s timer.
The achievement “Hazardous Materials” can now be acquired by knocking a guard into a pitfall with a Concussion Grenade.
Prevented cutscenes from being played in slow-motion when Reflex Gear’s effect is active.
Ensured that gear effects based around your current HP apply correctly when wearing gear that lowers your Max HP.
Corrected the height of guards’ detection/radar rings so that they are fully visible even when the guard is standing in water.
When parrying, the Scavenger now always faces toward the parried enemy.
Parrying non-melee attacks now plays the parry sound & visual effects.
You must now tase a Taser Guard while they are aiming at you to acquire the “Draw!” achievement — previously, you could earn it by tasing them at any time.
The third boss’ intro cutscene voice lines now play correctly upon re-fighting the boss after previously beating them.
Prevented the player from using gadgets in the tutorial level until all guards have been defeated, as it was previously possible to softlock using Tear Modules. Also adjusted the areas that you can teleport to in the tutorial level.
Prevented the player from teleporting into an unintended area of Layer 3, Sublevel B.
Fixed a bug where, if the third boss was defeated by reducing their max HP to 0 (rather than by reducing their HP to 0 and then finishing them with a Hard Attack), the end-of-battle cutscene would not play, softlocking the game.
Parrying enemy taser darts now counts toward the “Platypus” achievement.
Fixed instances of the mouse cursor appearing for a single frame when opening certain menus when using a controller.
You can now always spawn Radar and Elite Guards in Training mode in New Game+, regardless of whether you have reached the Layers on which they appear.
Adjusted some environment colliders to prevent guards becoming stuck in tight gaps.
The emissive portions of light fixtures now get disabled when the light is shot out/disabled.
Fixed a bug that allowed a softlock in the tutorial level if the final combat encounter was initiated while too near the previous encounter’s position.
Guards now have their baton swap to be in their hand with the proper timing in all sneak attack combat initiation cutscenes.
Fixed a bug where taser guards would sometimes run to an incorrect position after shooting the player.
Prevented taser guards from playing a voice line when entering the chase state after shooting the player.
Prevented guards who got trapped in an Electromagnet while engaged in a chase from immediately running to your position after breaking free.
Prevented guards from blocking Concussion Grenades.
Guards’ batons now always reset to the hip position when returning to the patrol state, and taser guards no longer permanently have their batons in hand.
Prevented guards from getting stuck in an idle animation while patrolling.
Fixed a bug where if the currently highlighted interactable object was destroyed (i.e. unloaded) the interaction prompt would stay active and would not clean up certain callbacks in memory which would cause the player to be unable to interact with anything.
Fixed the timing of the music in the end cutscene, which previously appeared delayed on some machines.
Improved guard navigation/avoidance behaviors and fixed some navmesh problems.
Adjusted joystick sensitivity/dead zone for certain controls to prevent accidentally changing values when navigating vertically.
Adjusted button press sensitivity so that analog inputs (i.e. a half-press on an gamepad’s trigger) register as button presses consistently and don’t retrigger erroneously.
Fixed an issue with how slo-mo was applied on the “Scrapped” screen when wearing certain gear.
Fixed a visual bug on Layer 2 where a black void was visible through the gap between the elevator and first room.
Prevented the player from taking damage after getting scrapped, which could cause the slo-mo effect to be canceled.
Bosses are now set to a consistent position when a cutscene is skipped, preventing them from clipping into objects.
You can no longer interact with interactables (including sneak attacking guards) while you are teleporting using a Tear Module. Also, guards can no longer be sneak attacked while they are being teleported.
Knocking out a guard currently in pursuit now properly registers that guard as no longer in pursuit (for the purpose of transitioning the music back to stealth).
Loading the title screen no longer creates an unnecessary extra loading screen object.
Discarding/scrapping/exchanging gear now removes it from memory.
Added a failsafe such that if an enemy becomes stuck in an invulnerable state (i.e. falling after an aerial wallsplat) for more than a few seconds, they will automatically be teleported to a valid location so the fight can resume.
Adjusted a collider in Layer 3, Sublevel B that an enemy commonly got stuck on.
Enlarged bulkhead colliders and wall colliders to overlap the ground and ceiling in an effort to prevent characters clipping through corners.
Added an iteration limit to attempt to fix a rare game freeze during Boss 2’s fight.
Parrying Boss 2’s grab now causes their attack to end, same as dodging.
The first combat section of “Extraction” (the elevator music) now transitions to the next section at the correct time.
Corrected the angle at which the taser is aimed to match the angle to the target.
Enemies no longer get stuck standing on tables or other objects after landing, instead tumbling off as intended or, as a failsafe, walking off and returning to normal.
Adjusted some combat start positions to prevent guards from starting combat with their colliders intersecting.
All gear now displays the edge light, shadow, and highlight effects correctly.
Initiating combat with a guard inside the elevator while outside the elevator no longer causes the game to stop rendering.
Guards now only run the code that checks for bodies to investigate when they aren’t actively investigating something else or chasing the player, preventing unintended stuttering/sliding that could occur when making noise near a guard who was currently investigating a body.
The way enemies’ colliders change size when launched has been adjusted to prevent unintended collisions when using Running Kick.
Fixed an animation transition error that occurred at the end of both running attacks and adjusted the rotation applied when transitioning out of said attacks so that no jittering occurs.
When ending a running attack, an additional check is performed to ensure that the player’s colliders do not intersect with the enemies’, and, if they do intersect, the player will be slightly moved to prevent the game’s collision resolution system from pushing the player away at high speed.
Fixed a bug where inputting a quick attack within a brief window during the startup of a hard attack would cause the hard attack to be “feinted” into the quick attack with the same position in the series.
That's it for now!
Thanks to all of you for your unbelievable feedback and support, we couldn't have come this far without you. This will likely be the last major content update for Raw Metal, but we will continue supporting and patching the game as long as is needed.
Take care, scavengers, and see you down there.
- Crucible
Original post
22 Jul 2024Developer post
1.1.3 Patch Notes
Hey Scavengers! We're releasing a new patch that reworks elevator ambushes and makes minor adjustments to bosses. Enjoy! Adjustments Previously, the chance of an elevator ambush occurring was determined by an “aggression” value that would increase when getting caught and increase
Hey Scavengers! We're releasing a new patch that reworks elevator ambushes and makes minor adjustments to bosses. Enjoy!
Adjustments

Previously, the chance of an elevator ambush occurring was determined by an “aggression” value that would increase when getting caught and increase slightly when initiating combat with a sneak attack. Due to the way this value was tracked and used, it was somewhat common to encounter a high number of elevator ambushes when ascending, which could become repetitive. The number of guards that could spawn in an elevator ambush was also based on the aggression value but involved a high level of randomness, and so you could end up getting a bunch of 1v1s in a row (boring) or end up fighting 3 guards at once, which could be unfair to a new player who might just be struggling to avoid getting caught. The randomness also made it difficult to get the “Going Up?” achievement. In order to address these issues, we’ve made some adjustments:
Aggression is now tracked per layer rather than per run, and only one elevator ambush can occur per layer that you ascend through, instead of there being a chance for an ambush to occur on every single sublevel. The chance for an ambush to occur is directly based on the layer’s aggression value, but the chance is decreased when only part of the Layer is being traversed (i.e. ascending from Layer 1, Sublevel 2 has a smaller chance for an ambush while ascending from Layer 1, Sublevel B has a higher chance, since fewer sublevels are being passed through).
The number of guards that can spawn in an elevator ambush is limited to the highest number of enemies that the player has beaten in a single combat encounter on this save (this data is not reset when starting New Game+), and then capped at 4, or 5 if the player has a significant number of non-noisemaker gadgets. As this data was not tracked prior to this update, you won’t see any ambushes until you beat some guards in a fight.
Randomness is removed from the equation when determining how many guards to spawn for an elevator ambush. The number is instead determined solely by the aggression value for the current Layer and then capped (if necessary).
The chance for an elevator ambush to occur is diminished by 25% if the player has not won a combat encounter against more than one enemy at once. This is to lower the likelihood that the player will encounter many 1v1s in a row and to add more leeway for inexperienced players.
Bodies of KO’d guards from elevator ambushes won’t despawn after combat and can be looted, but won’t drop gear and have a slightly lower grymite drop rate than normal.
Slightly decreased the likelihood of guard variants (taser, radar, elite) spawning in an elevator ambush.
Slightly increased heat build for targeted enemies who can’t see the player but are launched or wallsplatted.
The amount by which parrying decreases Boss 1’s armor meter has been fairly heavily decreased, as it was previously far too easy to deplete his armor using this method. The armor damage from parrying should function more as a small bonus for performing a difficult action than an extremely powerful tactic that practically invalidates the boss’ main mechanic.
Slightly increased the amount of Overload Boss 2 builds when getting hit with a taser dart.
Boss 3 can now continue certain attack chains after their first followup when dodging an attack with Slip during Standoff that they previously were unable to continue, making wildly swinging against them during Standoff a bit more punishing.
Made Boss 2’s cooldown for Mitrik End only count down during phase 2.
Adjusted the chances for Boss 2 to use Mitrik End, including allowing chaining into it from more attacks, to make it slightly more likely to be used in general and much more likely to be used at least once in a fight.
Adjusted how it is determined whether Boss 2 is at “low HP” (this is used to determine the likelihood of certain attacks being used) to be relative to their max HP.
Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that prevented enemies from building heat when a running attack was initiated from farther than 2.5 meters away — this range has been increased to 4 meters, the same distance at which enemies attempt to defend against running attacks.
Boss 2’s Overload sound effect loop no longer continues playing indefinitely when entering Phase 2 or resetting the battle.
Boss 2’s Quantum Blink now resets the boss’ wallsplattable timer (a value that determines whether a character can be wallsplatted when colliding with a wall; higher knockback attacks set the timer to a higher value), as previously it was possible for them to wallsplat themself by Quantum Blinking onto a wall shortly after being hit with an attack with a high knockback.
Fixed a bug that allowed Boss 2 to repeatedly use Mitrik End, ignoring its cooldown.
Prevented Boss 2’s dodge cooldown from getting reset when getting hit while wallsplatted.
Prevented all enemies from having their wallsplattable timer set higher than 0 by attacks that hit them while they were wallsplatted.
Fixed a NavMesh issue on Layer 2, Sublevel 1 that caused guards to be unable to path into the lounge.
Fixed a bug that prevented the player from receiving loot from Boss 3 when skipping their victory cutscene.
Fixed a bug that caused Boss 3’s super armor highlight effect to carry through into their cutscenes.
Prevented the player from teleporting into an unintended area in Layer 3, Sublevel B.
Fixed a UI layering issue where the player health display would display behind the inventory or other screens.
Original post
10 Jul 2024Developer post
1.1.2 Patch Notes
Hey Scavengers, minor patch rolling out with some good ol' bug fixes. Adjustments The game no longer runs in the background. Aside from being a sensible quality of life change, this should, in conjunction with some other bug fixes in this update, help stop certain bugs/softlocks
Hey Scavengers, minor patch rolling out with some good ol' bug fixes.
Adjustments

The game no longer runs in the background. Aside from being a sensible quality of life change, this should, in conjunction with some other bug fixes in this update, help stop certain bugs/softlocks associated with tabbing out of the game.
Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that would cause the mouse cursor to briefly flash on screen when pressing T.
Fixed a major issue caused by having 30 or more items in the hideout inventory, which could cause undefined behavior when attempting to open the hideout, start or continue a run, or open training mode because the game would try to unlock the “What if I need them later?!” achievement while no level was loaded, causing an error to be thrown.
Fixed a bug where, upon entering training mode for the first time, if the pause menu was opened immediately and then closed after a short time, the button to close the training tip popup would become unable to be selected.
Prevented the game from spawning guards for an elevator ambush/entering elevator combat while the game is paused. This should prevent a few softlocks that could arise when opening the inventory or pausing at certain times in the elevator.
Fixed a NavMesh problem that would cause guards to be unable to enter the elevator on Layer 2, Sublevel 3.
Prevented the player from teleporting to an unintended area in Layer 3, Sublevel B using a tear module.
Original post
27 Jun 2024Developer post
Raw Metal v1.1.0 - 20% off!
Major update and Summer Sale! Hey Scavengers! Today we've got our first major post-release update, rich with big changes that should massively improve your experience with Raw Metal! Also, the game is 20% off for the Steam Summer Sale , and we've added a bundle deal to save 10% o
01 Apr 2024Developer post
1.0.3 Patch Notes
Hey everyone! Small patch going live with some bug fixes and an April Fools secret for those of you who've beaten the game. Changelog Added/adjusted colliders in many areas to prevent clipping. Prevented broken effects from currently equipped gear from being applied an extra time
Hey everyone! Small patch going live with some bug fixes and an April Fools secret for those of you who've beaten the game.
Changelog

Added/adjusted colliders in many areas to prevent clipping.
Prevented broken effects from currently equipped gear from being applied an extra time when continuing or starting a run.
Fixed a bug that prevented the “Raw Metal Alchemist” achievement from being acquired by starting a run with a full set of fully upgraded gear already equipped.
Fixed a bug where, in New Game+, elite guards would play the dazed animation but not enter the dazed state when parried, allowing them to still perform their follow-up attack (without actually playing the attack’s animation).
Fixed a bug where an enemy would not play their attack animation if the attack began right as the enemy’s animation was transitioning from the knockback animation to the dazed animation after being parried.
Fixed a bug where bosses would incorrectly play a knockback animation when landing or ending a wallsplat while broken.
Fixed a bug where elevator ambushes encountered on boss levels would have the boss bonus applied to the style meter.
Prevented characters from having their current hitstun canceled when being hit by a zero-hitstun attack. This also applies to the stun from a parry, allowing the player to land multiple quick attacks after a parry before the stun runs out.
Adjusted the rate at which an enemy’s friction value is changed when becoming dazed to be immediate.
Adjusted the size of boss fight triggers to prevent the player from using a tear module to teleport into the boss room without triggering the boss fight.
Corrected some minor typos in a couple textures.
Pausing/opening the inventory while the elevator is moving now correctly keeps the game paused until the menu is closed. Additionally, the pause & inventory menus can now be opened earlier when starting a new run, continuing a run, or entering training mode.
When skipping the tutorial, tutorial controls and objectives are now hidden properly.
Fixed a bug that caused pause button press events to be fired twice after skipping the tutorial.
Adjusted how certain camera transitions work, which should fix a bug that would prevent the camera from properly transitioning out of its cutscene animation when skipping a boss’ cutscene too quickly.
Added an April Fools’ secret — Note: this will only apply if you have beaten the game at least once.
Original post
25 Mar 2024Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Raw Metal review: a brawler that thinks it's a stealth game
At first glance, this shadow-hopping top-downer looks like a nostalgic stealth game designed to evoke the boxy subterranean environments of the first Metal Gear Solid. But really it is a tough single-player fighting game with stealth bits attached. It is closer in design to kung-
23 Mar 2024Developer post
Post-Launch Announcements and Roadmap
Hey Scavengers! Thanks so much for the overwhelming support for the game since launch! You've blown us away and we couldn't be more happy. To address some feedback and maintain open communication, we wanted to talk a bit about what we're planning on implementing going forward. We
Hey Scavengers!
Thanks so much for the overwhelming support for the game since launch! You've blown us away and we couldn't be more happy.
To address some feedback and maintain open communication, we wanted to talk a bit about what we're planning on implementing going forward. We won't have any hard dates for any features mentioned here, so this is more of a priority list of what we'll be working on in the coming months.
High Priority
These are at the top of our list and will likely be implemented within the next two months.
Boss Training
The number one complaint we've had from players is that they find the bosses frustrating, since they can't get a handle on their movesets and patterns without being heavily punished before learning anything. To address this, we're going to be working on a boss training mode, selectable from the hideout. Players will be able to practice against bosses they've fought in the past, without worrying about having to grind back up to the boss because they were hit with something they didn't expect. Hopefully this will make the overall progression of the game more enjoyable and less like slamming into a brick wall over and over again.
Boss Skip Cost Reduction
We'll also be reducing the cost of skipping boss levels from the hideout. At the moment, skipping a boss level is twice the cost of skipping a regular level. This was intended to offset the added difficulty of the boss being skipped, but we failed to factor in the reward the player should get for beating the boss in the first place. Hopefully, after this change, beating a boss for the first time will feel more like a "checkpoint" since skipping them will be a bit more affordable.
Late Game Rebalancing
At the moment, the third boss feels a bit weak to us, so we'll be giving them a bit more offensive capability.
Secondary Priority
These are changes we'd like to get to once the high priority changes are in effect and we have a more solid foundation of the core game to build off of. We hope these will be in the game within the next 4 months.
Alternate Progression Modes
We hear you; not everyone was expecting (or wanted) a risk-reward extraction system with such a grueling punishment for failure. While this design choice is still core to the original intention of the game, we understand that there are a significant number of you who'd very much like to play the game more linearly, and we wouldn't want your experience to be hindered by these mechanics. So, we'll be working on some alternate progression modes. These are subject to change, but at the moment here are the two modes we want to add:
Story Mode
For players who want a fully linear progression system, with minimal stakes. Getting scrapped lets you keep your items, and resets you back to the beginning of the sublevel. Extract anytime with no risk of being ambushed, and skip to any unlocked sublevel for free.
Descent Mode
For players who want a linear progression system, but wish to retain some stakes in combat. If you're scrapped, the guard who scrapped you takes your inventory. Find the guard and take them down to get it back! Getting scrapped again before retrieving your items will send them to the Contraband Station. Skipping previously cleared layers is free, so you'll never have to pay a ton of grymite to skip to the later parts of the game. Extract anytime with no risk of ambush. Yes; this mode will essentially turn the game into a souls-like.
Difficulty Modifiers
We've always wanted the game to be challenging, but we never wanted it to feel like a brick wall for our players. For those of you who are struggling with stealth or combat to the point where the game isn't fun, we'll be adding some difficulty modifiers to assist with some aspects of the game. Such modifiers will include dodge/parry assist, extra health, and detection speed/range reduction. At the moment, we're planning on disabling relevant achievements while these modifiers are active.
Accessibility/Quality of Life Features
There are a number of ways we can make Raw Metal more of an enjoyable and comfortable experience for many of our players, so we want to implement some features to help with this:

Full subtitles for guards, voice messages, and boss combat
"Eye friendly" mode that modifies certain visual effects to reduce eye strain and make the game more playable for photosensitive players (i.e. finisher screen)
Full button remapping
Alternate control scheme for players who don't like hold inputs
Thank you all again so much for all the support and feedback, we're so lucky to have such an awesome community!
- Crucible
Original post
22 Mar 2024Developer post
1.0.2 Patch Notes
Added some colliders to certain areas to prevent guards from getting stuck behind tables and other objects. Adjusted how guards detect the ground when airborne to prevent them from getting stuck in a falling state on certain objects. Prevented some lights from turning off during
Added some colliders to certain areas to prevent guards from getting stuck behind tables and other objects.
Adjusted how guards detect the ground when airborne to prevent them from getting stuck in a falling state on certain objects.
Prevented some lights from turning off during cutscenes where they should stay enabled.
Fixed an issue where enemy health bars did not always display the leftmost part of their black outline.
Prevented characters from getting wallsplatted when in a cutscene, which should solve an issue where wallsplatting a boss on the same frame that their phase 2 cutscene began would cause them to play the cutscene animation from the wrong position and often resulted in a softlock.
Adjusted camera settings for boss fights to ensure the camera doesn’t get too far away and gets a good view of the action.
Adjusted the camera path in the first boss fight to improve visibility and reduce unnecessary camera rotation/motion.
Adjusted some camera paths in Layer 1 Sublevel 3, Layer 2 Sublevel 1, Layer 2 Sublevel 2, & Layer 3 Sublevel 1 to fix areas where an object could obscure the camera’s view to an excessive degree.
Prevented boss title cards from staying on screen when skipping a cutscene.
Fixed a bug where dequipping, scrapping, or discarding an equipped piece of gear with a multiplicative effect with a value of 0 (i.e. fully upgraded Tabi Shoes or Explosive Safety Gloves) would prevent the affected stat from being properly reset.
Fixed a bug where starting a new run directly from the title screen without using the standard New Run loadout menu (through either Quick Start or by pressing New Run when no gear or grymite is in the hideout) would not reset the tracked “starting grymite” value, causing the conditions for the Rounding Error achievement to be increased if the player had brought in grymite on their previous run.
Original post
20 Mar 2024Developer post
Raw Metal 1.0.1
Updated credits. Fixed a bug in which attempting to start the tutorial immediately after getting scrapped would cause the screen to fade to black permanently. Fixed an issue where the Windows version file size was twice as big as it should've been.
Updated credits.
Fixed a bug in which attempting to start the tutorial immediately after getting scrapped would cause the screen to fade to black permanently.
Fixed an issue where the Windows version file size was twice as big as it should've been.
Original post
05 Feb 2024Developer post
Raw Metal a16.5 - Next Fest Update
Hey, Scavengers! Buckle up, this is a big one: our last major update before our release on March 19th. This has been an amazing journey thus far, and we're extremely excited to share what we have in store for all of you today for Steam Next Fest. Let's dive into some of the new m
Hey, Scavengers!
Buckle up, this is a big one: our last major update before our release on March 19th. This has been an amazing journey thus far, and we're extremely excited to share what we have in store for all of you today for Steam Next Fest. Let's dive into some of the new major features:
Gear Visuals
At long last, gear now has visuals. Any gear you equip will appear on your character, adding visual depth and expression to the game. By popular request, we're working on a system to allow players to earn the ability to swap visuals between pieces of gear, so in the full game you won't have to sacrifice style for function.
We've also added Scav to the hideout when you're gearing up, so you can see what you'll look like before heading out.
New Tutorial
We've completely redone the tutorial from the ground up to more clearly teach new players certain core mechanics. It covers different kinds of attacks, launches, wallsplats, and even has a system to help with dodge and parry timing. We hope this will help newer players get a better foothold in the game before getting thrown in the deep end.
Training Mode
On the topic of practice, we have a new training mode! Accessed from the main menu after your first raid, you can spawn guards, practice combos, and test out whatever gear you have in your stash without risking anything. We're looking forward to see what kind of crazy combos and strategies players will be labbing in the training area!
Full Changelog
We have many other changes and features in this update, so here's the full changelog.
Features

Gear models!!! Gear now has visuals!!!

Sneaking has been reworked:

It is now a toggle input by pressing Left Control on keyboard/Click Left Stick on gamepad, rather than a hold/analog stick input
The amount that sneaking slows you by has been greatly reduced, and instead the camera now zooms in as both an indicator and a slight drawback of sneaking
The scavenger now uses the sneaking animation for this state rather than dynamically blending into it based on the proximity of enemies
Increased sound volume from walking at lower than maximum speeds to better encourage sneaking and increased scavenger’s minimum walk speed when not sneaking
Title screen changes:

Added the Scavenger to the hideout! They will now appear when selecting gear to show a preview of what your loadout will look like
Added a “Quick Start” option on the title screen to quickly start a run with no gear
Added short descriptions for each button on the title screen
Added a proper loading screen for going between the title screen and a run
Decreased the fade out time after pressing the button to start a run
The tutorial has been reworked:

Made tutorial popups significantly simpler/less wordy
Added an “objective” and checkpoint system to teach the player more specific concepts like sneaking and wallsplatting
New layout and design that teaches more concepts in a more engaging and less overwhelming way
Player health is hidden for duration of tutorial, then appears after to more intuitively communicate that you can’t take damage during the tutorial
Replaying the tutorial will still show all the info popups, even if you have already seen them
Certain tutorial popups will now contextually appear outside the tutorial if you have not seen them yet
The “Info” box will no longer appear during combat to avoid an information overload. Instead, the most recently queued info box will appear once combat is finished
Added training mode:

You can enter training mode from the title screen after completing or skipping the tutorial
In training mode, you can practice fighting guards. You can set the number of standard and taser guards, change their behavior, and adjust other settings from the pause menu.
Unlike during combat during a normal run, you can access your inventory during training mode to equip any gear you have in your hideout, allowing you to test out various setups. You also have access to infinite gadgets and taser darts
You can view damage data such as individual attack damage and DPS
You can turn on a timing assist to tell you when your dodges and parries are too early or too late
Boss 1 balance changes

He is now immune to the stun effects of taser darts when his armor meter is active, but they will now deal damage to the armor meter
It is now extremely rare for him to block attacks when his armor meter is active
The armor meter recharges slightly slower but has a slightly shorter cooldown and takes slightly less damage from attacks
Concussion grenades now deal damage to the armor meter and cause the boss to flash white to indicate the normal effect was prevented by the armor
Other Features/Changes

Running kick and quick kick 3 now act as OTGs, meaning they can be used to hit enemies who are in a grounded landing/getup state. Hitting an enemy with an OTG when they are in such a state causes the move to be unable to launch or wallsplat, and instead forces the enemy back into a standing state
Removed the twinkle that appears when an enemy is starting an attack, as many players assumed this effect indicated dodge or parry timing
Replaced this effect with a HUD warning effect that flashes faster as the attack is closer to coming out - this effect also appears for offscreen enemies, making situations with many combatants more fair
Guards now detect you more slowly when you are spotted while in shadow (except if they were alerted by a security camera), and do not track the player during shadowed detection, giving you a chance to get out of the way or slip by for a sneak attack. The distance and angle requirements for a guard catching you have also been made more strict to enable dodging out of the way to avoid getting caught
Floors are now referred to as “Sublevels”
You can now spend grymite to start your run at any sublevel you have previously reached (at a cost of 200 per floor) by pressing A/D or Left/Right D-Pad before selecting “New Run” or “Quick Start.” Players who have already reached floors past Layer 1 Sublevel 1 will need to reach those floors again in order to unlock the ability to skip to those levels, as this data was not previously saved
Added elevator UI that displays which floor you are currently on, as well as which floor is coming up next when you have the elevator access card
You can now select a type of control scheme to override control prompts, as Steam typically defaults all controllers to be detected as XBox controllers, which prevented control prompts from displaying correctly in some cases
Adjusted escape success screen to display full level names (i.e. “Layer 1, Sublevel 1”) rather than abbreviations (i.e. “L1F1”)
Adjusted running punch to be slightly easier to land when close to an enemy
Adjusted running kick to be slightly easier to land and to allow easier juggling after landing a hit
Added KO screen boom sound effects and made music cut out when getting scrapped
Added basic UI sound effects and looting sound effects - subject to change
Added sounds related to Boss 1’s armor meter (armor hit, armor break, armor regen)
Added functionality for noisemakers in combat — when a noisemaker is activated in combat, the nearest guard who can act will immediately run up and attack the player. You can use this to bait guards into hitting each other or set up for an easy counter-hit hard attack
Adjusted Riot Armor’s dodge knockback effect to be unblockable and interrupt enemy attacks
Removed Charge Braces, as they were an extremely strong gear piece that trivialized resource management and encouraged unwanted camping strategies during combat
Certain pieces of gear have been removed from the loot pool as they are designated to be obtained by non-standard means
Adjusted walk animation speeds to better match the physical movement speed
Added dead zones for analog sticks on gamepad (no settings for these yet)
Guards now play a hit animation before transitioning into the dazed animation when they are broken by the player’s attack
Fog colors now fade smoothly between levels that have differing fog colors
Updated some tips with new information and images
Guards will now play a “lost sight” animation when the player is in shadow for a time during combat, similarly to how Boss 1 works – this animation is also now used when a guard loses track of you during a chase
Guards no longer regenerate health or recover from the broken state when trapped, launched, wallsplatted, or electrocuted
The time a guard stays broken has been increased to 3 seconds
When a guard is highlighted for a sneak attack, all guards in the room will now be highlighted as well to display how many enemies will enter combat if the player sneak attacks
The room that combat starts in is now dependent on who initiated combat – if the player initiates combat, it will start in the room the attacked guard was in. If the guard initiates combat, it will start in the room the player was in. This was adjusted to better reflect the appearance of sneak attacks in stealth mode, especially when using gear that increases sneak attack range
Added a secondary attack animation for guards
Added a lock status indicator to gates and the elevator terminal that displays red when locked, yellow when the player has the required access card, and green when unlocked
Guards take even less heat when out of the player’s attack range, and broken guards take none unless the player is in range
Guards now take a small amount of heat upon being wallsplatted, and are allowed to attack earlier after recovering from any vulnerable state (wallsplat, launch, electrocute, etc.)
Adjusted Chest Rig effect scaling to be a linear increase
Adjusted running attack hitboxes and timing slightly
When using gamepad, the left stick now acts the same as the right stick while aiming a taser or gadget
Added on-screen control prompts that display the inputs to use gadgets/tasers
Taser guards can now spawn for elevator ambushes, with a 1 in 6 chance on Sublevel 1, a 1 in 5 chance on Sublevel 2, and a 1 in 4 chance on Sublevel 3
Removed randomness from the duration of delays between level loads and slightly shortened delay times
Added support for screen resolutions up to 4K 4096x2304
Fixes

“Effect Down” broken gear effect now correctly applies
Gear that reduces max HP no longer incorrectly changes the order of health + armor pips
Fixed a bug where when wearing gear that reduces max HP, armor points would not be used when taking a hit at 1 health
Fixed a bug where, when reaching 0 HP while carrying two of the same piece of gear, the game would not play the “Scrapped” screen and instead would allow the player to continue the fight
Corrected motion of camera when transitioning out of combat start cutscenes to avoid the camera looking down for a moment
Combat camera is now less likely to get stuck in a position where the target guard is not visible
Adjusted some camera paths to make low-visibility situations even less likely
The low HP “Caution” effect now correctly disappears when teleporting guards out of combat
Security camera sound effect now fades out when the game is paused
The elevator camera can no longer be triggered when outside the elevator during combat
Other minor fixes to camera triggers (should hopefully a few many camera-related issues)
Moves that change a character’s collider size no longer apply to the environment collider, preventing the player (and hopefully guards) from clipping out of bounds
Additionally, character to character colliders have been sized up vertically to prevent launched characters from getting stuck on top of other characters
You can no longer exit the elevator while its door is closing
Sneak attacking a guard trapped in an electromagnet will no longer cause the guard’s combat start cutscene animation to be delayed
Trevor’s forward movement when throwing his pickaxe is now done physically rather than just through animation, preventing visual errors such as clipping
The game will no longer be prevented from loading if you pause right as you start or continue a run (as you can no longer pause the game during this time)
Taser guards will no longer incorrectly play a combat start cutscene animation when getting wallsplatted during combat if they were in the aiming state when combat started
Guards can no longer be teleported into locked rooms using tear modules (don’t worry, the player still can)
Guards are now set to be inactive after being teleported out of a fight until the fight ends, which should prevent them from being visible on the KO screen
Other tiny tear module fixes that may have fixed a softlock? Maybe?
Guard heat indicator will no longer persist for a short time after a guard is KO’d
Fixed a bug where the cost to replenish armor points would be incorrectly calculated if the armor was not completely depleted
Slightly adjusted guard parry timing to be more in line with its animation
The player no longer receives the “Damaged [POINTS RESET]” penalty when inflicting self-damage, such as with Warhead Gauntlets or Boots
You can no longer perfect chain attacks that hit an invulnerable guard, and attacks against invulnerable guards no longer register on the combo counter
Corrected access card interaction prompt text to read “Access Card” instead of “Keycard”
Fixed a bug where pressing pause to view “more info” for a tip would not properly select the tip if it had previously been unlocked
You can no longer pause the game when you are prompted to perform dodge or parry inputs in the tutorial to avoid time scale issues
The encumbrance meter no longer displays the exact weight value outside of menus and instead shows the weight rating (Weight OK, Encumbered, Overencumbered) as intended
Quitting to the title screen from the pause menu or getting scrapped now saves all unlocked tips and info
In the inventory, fixed a bug where pressing left on controller while a piece of gear was selected would sometimes not properly move to highlight the head slot
You can no longer target disabled security cameras with the taser
Guard hit sounds are no longer tied to animation and will now play properly when a guard is stuck in another animation
Removed a line of code that caused guards to attack less frequently when hit
Forge now correctly auto-selects the first consumable slot when scrapping your last piece of gear
You can no longer buffer a hold select action on forge action buttons by holding the select button while canceling and then reselecting the same gear or gadget and holding down the select button
Fixed visual bugs when discarding gear in the inventory that would cause the next selected gear to not appear as selected and for it to have a red highlight as if it were being discarded
Corrected a light region in L1F1
Fixed a problem where dust trail effects would persist after they should have stopped, in some situations. This bug is hard to test so it’s possible that there are still some situations in which it may occur
When using keyboard + mouse, pressing the WASD keys while aiming a taser or gadget no longer will move the camera
Taser guards are now correctly highlighted when approaching for a sneak attack
The player’s aggression rating is now saved correctly to prevent players exiting the game and continuing their run in order to reset this value
Fixed a layout issue that would cause certain menu button prompts to be positioned incorrectly
Encumbrance is now recalculated immediately upon retrieving items from the Contraband Station
Made certain character states that previously did not apply any friction value apply one, in order to avoid situations where the character can slide indefinitely
Upon activation, the Emergency Shock Rig now puts enemies in their “sent” animation rather than the standard launch animation
Fixed a bug where characters could not enter their landing/tumbling states when landing after being launched if they were still in hitstun by making it so hitstun is canceled when landing
Guards can no longer see or hear you when you are in the process of descending or ascending in the elevator (except for guards spawned for elevator ambushes, of course) – this fix probably fixed the bug where guard hearing indicators would get stuck on screen between levels
Fixed a bug where dropdowns would have their text become hidden when exiting and re-opening their parent menu while highlighted
As always, thanks for all your support and good luck in the mines!
- Crucible
Original post
20 Dec 2023Developer post
a0.13.5 - The Mudman Update
Happy Holidays, Scavengers! James has taken it upon himself to build a new friend out of mud and spare parts in the mines. Drop by and say hello! Patch Notes Added Mudman (holiday prop) Fixed elevator prompt to show proper access card name Small stuff today, bigger stuff coming s
Happy Holidays, Scavengers!
James has taken it upon himself to build a new friend out of mud and spare parts in the mines. Drop by and say hello!
Patch Notes

Added Mudman (holiday prop)
Fixed elevator prompt to show proper access card name
Small stuff today, bigger stuff coming soon!
- Crucible
Original post
13 Dec 2023Developer post
Raw Metal Demo a0.13.4 Patch Notes
Hey Scavengers! We've got a small patch for you guys today. Here are the changes: Features Adjusted the wording of some tips to be more clear. Elevator access cards now display as “Elevator Access Card” instead of using the floor ID. Security cameras now have their view area proj
Hey Scavengers!
We've got a small patch for you guys today. Here are the changes:
Features

Adjusted the wording of some tips to be more clear.
Elevator access cards now display as “Elevator Access Card” instead of using the floor ID.
Security cameras now have their view area projections disabled during combat to signify that they don’t do anything outside of stealth. The projection flickers back on after combat (and after the player is not inside the camera’s view) to give the player some time to move away before the camera becomes active and starts rotating again.
Scav now defaults to a random voice on first time startup
Fixes

Boss 1’s grab followup (the launcher) now properly deals knockback instead of getting you stuck in place.
Taser guards are now visible on KO screens.
Flashing enemies should no longer appear as the same color as the background (without shadow) on KO screens.
State-bound effects are now able to persist correctly between multiple states (in layman’s terms: guards’ invulnerability no longer wears off prematurely when getting up after being launched - this prevents some animation errors).
Effects of equipped gear are now always applied at the correct level when continuing a run.
Security cameras no longer continue playing their movement sound during combat and will now properly start playing movement sounds again after combat ends.
Fixed a problem where if Boss 1 used his grab to send Scav into their 2nd phase, the camera animation for the Scav 2nd phase cutscene would not play.
Fixed an issue where the game would not launch on Mac due to searching for the wrong version number (oops).
Good luck down there!
- Crucible
Original post
02 Dec 2023Developer post
Raw Metal December Update
Features New scav voice, selectable from options menu Added one liners for scav when defeating a boss Two new guard voices Some visual updates to the hideout, including the mining robot being visible Introductory title text for the first boss Fixes Dropdown buttons will no longer
Features

New scav voice, selectable from options menu
Added one liners for scav when defeating a boss
Two new guard voices
Some visual updates to the hideout, including the mining robot being visible
Introductory title text for the first boss
Fixes

Dropdown buttons will no longer have the incorrect text color after a value is selected on keyboard
Fixed incorrect controller navigation in the options menu
Fixed dropdown options having incorrect/inconsistent controller navigation
Screen-wide visual effects such as the concussion grenade effect and speed lines will no longer persist onto the title screen if the player loses a run while the effect is active
Gear effect text on Charge Braces will no longer overlap when the gear has the “Effect Down” broken effect
The player can no longer clip into the corner of the small room on the left side of L1F2 and get stuck
In order to prevent save-scumming, the “Quit” option in the pause menu is now disabled during combat
Data is now saved immediately upon being scrapped, rather than after the screen fades to black, in order to prevent save-scumming by exiting the game on the scrapped screen.
Original post
31 Oct 2023Developer post
Raw Metal Alpha Demo Halloween Update!
Happy Halloween, Scavengers! This alpha demo update has some juicy new features for you to sink your teeth into! We also have a brand new trailer for the game, and have even announced a release date... Raw Metal will release on March 19, 2024! Until then, we plan to continue upda
Happy Halloween, Scavengers! This alpha demo update has some juicy new features for you to sink your teeth into! We also have a brand new trailer for the game, and have even announced a release date...
Watch on YouTube
Raw Metal will release on March 19, 2024!
Until then, we plan to continue updating the demo every so often, and will continue releasing monthly builds to our Patreon!
For now, take a look at what we have for this version of the demo...
Changelog

New level (L1F3)
The first boss enters the fray! Fight him by descending past level 3.
New mechanic: the Contraband Station! Find it on level 3 to recover your lost items
Combat camera improvements
New animations for guards turning, so they don't snap around and spot you immediately
New animations for guards getting trapped in electromagnets
New Scavenger voice!
Parrying is now slightly easier
Visual fidelity improvements
Some spooky decor for the lounge
Plenty of bug fixes!
Thanks so much to all of you for your support thus far, it means the world to us.
Good luck in the mines!
- Crucible
Original post

Updates & announcements

New Animations

New Features

Adjustments

Bug Fixes

New Features

Adjustments

Bug Fixes

Changelog

New Features

Adjustments

Bug Fixes

Changelog

Difficulty/Progression

New Miniboss: Forgekeeper Lyla

Expanded Options Menu and Rebinding

New guard patrol animations, and more!

Full Changelog

Options Menu Overhaul

New Enemy: Forgekeeper Lyla

Other New Features

Balance/Adjustments

Bug Fixes

That's it for now!

Adjustments

Bug Fixes

Adjustments

Bug Fixes

Major update and Summer Sale!

Boss Training

Forge/Contraband Station Swap

Full Changelog

New Features

Balance

Boss 1

Boss 2

Boss 3

Bug Fixes

Other Adjustments

Changelog

High Priority

Boss Training

Boss Skip Cost Reduction

Late Game Rebalancing

Secondary Priority

Alternate Progression Modes

Story Mode

Descent Mode

Difficulty Modifiers

Accessibility/Quality of Life Features

Gear Visuals

New Tutorial

Training Mode

Full Changelog

Features

Gear models!!! Gear now has visuals!!!

Sneaking has been reworked:

Title screen changes:

The tutorial has been reworked:

Added training mode:

Boss 1 balance changes

Other Features/Changes

Fixes

Features

Fixes

Features

Fixes

Raw Metal will release on March 19, 2024!

Changelog