Greetings Mercs and Happy Halloween!
Version 1.0 is nearly feature complete, but I still have a lot of work ahead of me to prepare marketing materials, create a new trailer, and go through extensive testing. I want the launch to be as smooth as possible. This will take me at least another month to prepare.
The release will require my full attention to patch and support. I would like to allocate some family time this holiday season, so I’ve decided to schedule the release for January 8, 2026 - roughly two months from now.
Here’s a quick preview of what’s to come, but not everything is covered in this post.
REGION CAMPAIGN
1.0 comes with a complete campaign, structured into 3 acts.
The lore of the acts is not revealed in this preview to avoid spoilers.
The final mission ends a boss fight and a victory cutscene, but you'll still be able to continue playing the game and improve your squad after finishing the campaign.
Some locations now require you to complete survivor assignments tied to the acts.
Version 1.0 comes with five new mission locations, new enemy types, and new assignments.
Completing major milestones shows a splash screen when returning to camp.
NEW SCORE MECHANIC: GLORY
The game now offers an additional scoring system called Glory.
Performing various combos in combat triggers announcer emotes, granting a score. This is an extension to the existing emotes, such as Head Shot, Double Kill, Triple Kill, etc..
There are now over 50 voiced announcer emotes for different combos.
The board announcer now has a separate volume control in game settings.
This effect can be completely turned off in game settings.
REWORKED ENEMY THREAT ON REGION LOCATIONS
Enemy scaling on mission repeats has been reworked to increase based on silent or loud runs.
Various region modifiers can spawn to help you reduce the threat.
The previous system of reducing threat by completing near-by missions has been phased out.
REGION MODIFIERS
Added 12 new region modifiers to reduce the enemy threat of region locations.
Added 3 new region modifiers tied to specific survivors.
SURVIVOR SUPPORT
The survivor assistance mechanic has been drastically reworked with new progression and UI.
Intel points spent on survivors are no longer tied to a single location — instead, their support improves at all locations where they offer assistance.
More than 5 points of intel can now be spent on many survivors.
Spent intel can no longer be refunded. (Intel points in previous saves are auto-refunded.)
New mercs have a chance to show up in camp every day (each mission counts as a day). Previously, new mercs showed up after clearing a new location for the first time only.
The chance of merc discovery is now tied to Ramon. Spending intel on Ramon increases this chance, giving you more control of the frequency.
ARMORY UPGRADE POINTS
Dropped Armory point cards are no longer drawn into your hand during combat. These points are now collected and consolidated as a reward section on the Loot Haul screen.
This change intends to reduce card clutter in hand during combat.
The drop rate of points has been rebalanced and new gadgets can improve the chance.
The UI of the Armory screen has been slightly reworked.
LOCATION LOOT LEVEL BONUS
Each location now offers a bonus to the loot level of weapons found during a mission run.
Harder missions offer a higher bonus.
The bonus is displayed on the mission details screen in camp.
NEW SPECIAL WEAPON MODIFIERS
Many non-unique weapons now contain new modifiers granting additional tactical benefits.
These effects are similar to unique weapons but improve with weapon (color) upgrades, they are listed as Special Modifiers in details.
Weapons containing these modifiers now have a custom card frame (top-left corner).
Firearms with silencers are treated as special weapons.
NEW WEAPONS
8 new submachine guns with loud and silenced variants.
5 new assault rifles.
5 new sniper rifles.
2 new sharp weapons.
The newly added weapons come with custom art and models.
NEW GADGETS
A few underused gadgets have been reworked to offer new benefits.
Some gadgets can be equipped on resting mercs in camp and still offer benefits in combat.
NEW CONSUMABLES
10 new valuables and junk cards to be found in the world.
10 new random food and drink consumables.
ENEMY CHANGES
Eliminated bosses now spawn a separate area object containing their loot. I noticed some players missed looting bosses while rushing to return to camp, so this should hopefully resolve that.
Enemies can now be stunned for multiple turns, enabled by a new Heavy Stun ability tied to certain blunt weapons.
REWORKED TACTICAL ADVANTAGE
Tactical Advantage has been renamed to Recon and is no longer tied to individual mercs.
Recon grants a chance to select an additional card to draw at the start of every turn.
The chance is now tied to points spent in different class trees, shown on the skills UI.
PARRY CHANGES
Unarmed combat training has been renamed to Martial Arts.
Base parry chance is now gained by merc's training in Martial Arts.
Pistols now include a Small Gun modifier, offering an additional bonus to parry chance.
Improved Parry skill has been renamed to Parry Master and provides a greater bonus.
GAME DIFFICULTY
Veteran, Apocalypse, and Extinction difficulties have been slightly increased in difficulty scaling, while Normal and Easy remain unchanged.
You can now switch between Apocalypse and Extinction modes while in camp.
CHALLENGE MODES
Many players enjoy playing different challenge modes which end on a specific mission, typically 4-5 missions into the Region.
Version 1.0 will allow you to play the entire campaign on any challenge mode, giving you an alternative way to experience the full game.
GAME POLISH
New “Area Cleared” screen at the end of every encounter.
Every encounter has has a unique location name.
Many screens have been cleaned up, with larger fonts, improved tool tips, reworked text.
\[/p]
AUDIO
Added 6 new music camp tracks (for total of 20).
Added 8 new music combat tracks (for total of 40).
Remastered all gunshot sounds for volume consistency.
Refactored rapid gun fire logic to reduce audio clipping.
As usual, the full patch notes will also contain a list of all the bug fixes since the last patch.
Thank you for playing Dead Grid and I can't wait to share 1.0!
--Paul