Welcome to Week 231.

This week brings four new unique fish subspecies to Icarus - one per map, plus a rare catch found only in the Mushroom Swamp on Elysium.

We have also performed a decent amount of texture and LOD optimizations on knives, guns, bows, spears ammo and fish to save more memory while playing.

We’re also teasing next week’s update with a brand-new legendary item you may have seen marked “coming soon” in the Biolab: the Timber Extraction Unit.

Notable Improvements:

• Optimized Knife textures & LODs, saving around 104MB.
• Optimized Gun and Bow Textures & LODs, saving around 56MB.
• Optimized Spear textures & LODs, saving around 77MB.
• Optimized Fish bestiary images saving around 105MB of memory.
• Optimized Ammo, Arrow, Bolt and Grenade textures saving around 134MB.
• Improved physics setups on several spears making their behavior when dropped less erratic
• Changed recipe list category orientation for easier viewing of categories
• Fixed a bug in the Hammerhead Slug Fight where if a cocoon is broken during the fight the child slugs spawned in would have incorrect health values

This Week: Texture Optimizations

Back in week 229's update, we sort of snuck in a pretty substantial memory optimization (saving around 1.5GB) effort, and with more texture optimizations coming through this week (at around another 0.5GB) we wanted to raise awareness around this and what it means for players. Ideally, this type of optimization should actually go unnoticed by players, in the sense that the quality of the object remains as good as it was, while at the same time taking up less memory. This allows for better accessibility on machines with lower end hardware, gives shorter load times, less visual glitches (when textures fail to load, etc), less pressure on the engine's streaming systems, and so on.

We have some custom tooling which we use to find items that we may have been a little too generous with when it comes to texture sizes, but its still a rather manual process that requires individual checking which slows things down a bit. In general, memory optimization is one of those things that we need to continually stay on top of, as Icarus is an ever-growing project and with the amount of content that it contains in 2026 compared to 2021, our memory budget continues to be stretched thinner and thinner. So we need to make sure each asset only uses as much memory as it needs to in order to make room for the additional new content.

As with all our patches, optimization takes time and we like to include them as soon as they are done. This results in smaller fixes in week to week, resulting in a gradual increase in performance over time rather than an all at once.

This Week: Blinky & Elysium Fish Map

This week, we’ve introduced Blinky, a new mutated fish that can only be found in the Elysium region within the Mushroom Swamp. It’s a small addition on the surface, but one that starts to build out the identity and uniqueness of the area.

Alongside this, we’ve made updates to the Elysium Fish Map. The region now features its own distinct zones, rather than reusing layouts or data from other maps. This should make exploration feel more tailored and consistent with the environment.

At first glance, Blinky may seem like an ordinary fish, but it has some unusual properties beneath the surface. These won’t all be immediately obvious, as they’re something we plan to expand on and explore further in future updates.

This Week: New Unique Fish Sub-Species

We’ve also added new variations for fish that are unique to the other maps, bringing each map up to one new fish to discover and catch. These are the Emerald Wraith on Olympus, Coral Tang on Styx and the Spotted Gar on Prometheus. These new additions can be found in different locations across Olympus, Styx, and Prometheus, encouraging players to explore a bit more thoroughly. To help track them down, we recommend using the FISH device, which can be purchased from the orbital workshop.

Looking ahead, we’re planning to expand the fishing system further. This will include adding more visible presence of fish in the world, introducing new rods with different properties, and creating more uses for fish beyond decoration and food.

Next Week: Timber Extraction Unit

Next week brings a brand-new legendary item - the Timber Extraction Unit. This high-powered chainsaw can engage in melee combat or can launch blades to fell trees from a distance. It can be upgraded like all legendary gear.

Your support makes these updates possible.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1648533/Icarus_Dangerous_Horizons_Expansion/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/

Changelog 3.0.9.151750-rel-DangerousHorizons

New Content

Fixed

Future Content