The fourth update expands both the city and its inhabitants—some of whom now have fur. Stray animals have begun appearing in the streets, and if you’ve shown kindness to cats or dogs in your contemplations, you’ll start seeing them around the city. If that’s not enough, you can now construct an Animal Palace, where Pet Sitter robots provide for every need of the rescued.
Meanwhile, a new choice emerges: intervene in a dogfighting ring as early as Chapter 1, if you’re willing. And yes, should the moment arise, you can pause mid-gunfight to scoop up a stray before returning fire.
Elsewhere in the city, the Lifeforms tab has been added to track both human and non-human inhabitants, and four new achievements await—three tied to animals and one involving an unlikely toilet paper situation. Adjustments have been made across the board, from Slurry Mine output increases to refugee housing changes that ensure abandoned humans find shelter.
Also, bulk androids can once again use the largest railguns. You spoke, we listened, and now they’re armed appropriately.
“It’s funny how human beings are the only creatures who claim to have a monopoly on kindness.”— Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice
Building the Machine
We’re closing in on 500 reviews, and every single one helps shape what comes next. Every stray rescued, every system pushed to its limits, every unexpected moment of android mercy—it all feeds back into the machine. We’re watching, listening, and fine-tuning.
Indie games thrive on the signals players send, and on Steam, that signal is reviews. Praise, critique, and speculation about whether the Animal Palace constitutes an AI-driven utopia—it all helps more players find their way here. Keep the feedback coming.
Update 4 Changelog
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- Dog Rescue Operations: Players can now intervene in a dogfighting ring as early as Chapter 1 to rescue dogs.
- Stray Animals in the City: If you have completed positive contemplations about cats or dogs in Chapter 1 or later, strays will now appear throughout the city. There are eight breeds of dogs and three cat coat variations.
- The Animal Palace: Once strays are present and you have progressed further into Chapter 1 (or beyond), you can construct an Animal Palace, a fully automated sanctuary.
- Animal Rescue Protocols: With a single click, you can have any android rescue strays and send them to your palace. This means you can rescue a dog mid-combat and immediately resume shooting.
- New Lifeforms Tab: The resources window now includes a Lifeforms tab, where all tracked living beings—including pets, human staff, and others—are displayed.
- New Achievements: Four new achievements have been added—three related to animals, and one to an extremely rare toilet paper situation.
- Filtered Water & Slurry Mine Output: Filtered Water storage capacity has been increased, and Slurry Mines now produce significantly more output.
- Autosave Adjustments: Players can now customize how many autosaves to keep. The default has been lowered from 60 to 20 to improve cloud storage sync times.
- Intelligence Class 4 Description Fix: The wording has been corrected to better reflect actual difficulty. If you want the difficulty level it originally implied, switch to Extreme Mode.
- Android Class Tooltips: Archetypes are now clearly displayed in android class tooltips.
- Enemy Harassment Messaging: When enemies are actively targeting you due to your current project, this is now much more clearly communicated.
- Refugee Housing Adjustments: If refugee housing is available, abandoned humans will always move in now instead of sometimes dying of exposure.
- Mech Reliability Fixes: Captured mechs will now reliably fire instead of sometimes refusing to act.
- Bulk Androids & Railguns: Bulk androids can once again use the largest railguns, reverting an unpopular change from the prior build. Additionally, players will now receive a notice when resource shortages prevent androids from firing.
- New "Currently Buildable" Tab: A "Currently Buildable" tab has been added to the build menu by player request.
- Target Building Visibility: When in build mode for a structure that goes inside a small human building, those buildings are now much more visible on the map.
- Worker Predators: Fixed an issue where the Worker Predator Factories were absent if you took certain paths in a timeline.
- Liquid Metal Tiger Availability: Fixed an issue where the Liquid Metal Tiger could not be invented if you took certain paths through a timeline compared to other ones.
- The Coming War: If you are fully prepped for WW4, and just would need to wait for the 9th doom, there is now a contemplation called The Coming War that jumps you straight there. On normal difficulty in particular, this saves you from having any wasted time.
- Other Fixes And Tweaks: Half a dozen or so other more minor fixes and tweaks based on feedback, such as the Relumine getting bonuses from fear-based bonuses, etc.
Full Changelog
A full, comprehensive breakdown of every change from this patch can be found in the Heart of the Machine Wiki, found here.
Guides to Tame the Machine
Even the most brilliant mind needs guidance when faced with a system as vast as this one. To help you navigate, we’ve pinned two essential resources from the Heart of the Machine wiki:
New Minds, Start Here
For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.
We've recently released the Heart of the Machine Hacking Guide as well! Knowledge is power. Guard it well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422241019
Connect with the Machine
Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:
💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.
Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/532089704231732298
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/532089704231731473