The city continues to find new ways to respond.
Update 18 introduces Pressure Points — a new class of reactive events that appear across StreetSense starting in Chapter One. These are small, (usually) repeatable strategic encounters that let you prod the simulation from unexpected angles: trigger a glitch in the financial records of a criminal syndicate, redirect a weapons shipment, make a deal with a hitman, or unleash a swarm of spiders across the city.
Eleven of the fourteen events are available as early as chapter one, with the rest appearing in later timelines. Most are on cooldowns rather than single-use, offering fresh tactical tools across multiple difficulties. Some lead to "hero unit" upgrades. Some unlock new consumables or structures. One might set a worrying legal precedent.
Pressure Points are small, repeatable events that let you subtly disrupt the world — redirect shipments, forge records, or trigger chaos. They’re optional but reactive, offering new tactical angles and rewards. Easy to miss, but once discovered, they change how you interact with the city.
Here are some of the Pressure Points you'll encounter.
Arranging a Hit
You’re no longer limited to rumors and whispers — this Pressure Point lets you track a contract killer through StreetSense and decide what to do with them. Hire them, neutralize them, or escalate the situation. Every choice triggers new possibilities.
Floating Point Errors
Some syndicates are more vulnerable to math than bullets. This Pressure Point targets a laundering operation by inducing calculation anomalies, turning financial chaos into tactical advantage.
SecForce Weapons Shipments
Military supply lines aren’t as secure as they think. This Pressure Point allows you to reroute weapons from the city’s enforcement arm — either toward local resistance or into your arsenal. Timing, as always, is everything.
Update 18 Changelog
Show details
Major Systems and Additions
- Pressure Points Introduced: StreetSense now features 14 dynamic Pressure Points across the game, with 11 available as early as Chapter 1. These events offer repeatable, cooldown-based strategic interactions and unlock sandbox tools for shaping the city.
- New Rewards: Pressure Points grant access to:
- 9 new achievements
- 2 new consumable items
- 4 new hero badges (available earlier than usual)
- 1 new Structure/Job producing 2 new resources
- 1 new hackable robotic NPC unit for converted squads
- Event Highlights: Pressure Points include options to:
- Disrupt black market operations
- Manipulate the legal system
- Breed bee queens or giant spiders
- Redirect military supply lines
- Exploit financial bugs in syndicate accounts
Supplementary Additions
- New Resource—Hatred of Vorsiber: This strategic currency tracks your grievances and opens new retaliatory options, especially through Pressure Points.
- More Achievements: Five new achievements linked to Intelligence Class 5 hero badge variants.
- Lore and Clarity:
- Flamethrower path in Chapter 1 now includes clearer narrative prompts and dev notes on future antagonistic routes.
- Securing Water/Food projects clarify that you negotiate with the lower classes—not just your housed humans.
- All Deals now include thematic explanations tied to their bonuses.
- Intelligence Class 5–7 notifications have been updated with more specific and forward-facing details, including Ziggurat hints.
Bugfixes
- Fixed a typo in the Occult Participation route.
- Occult Participation was mistakenly showing up in the prologue. It now only appears in Chapter 1 and onward.
- Fixed an issue where if an NPC was blocking an investigation or infiltration and was killed, the action remained blocked until the next turn. Other actions were unaffected.
- Fixed an issue where a profile could be blocked from creating new timelines if the folder name was changed, despite this not being intended.
- New timelines are now correctly set up at the end of time immediately, allowing older saves to switch without missing file errors.
- Fixed a bug where replaying Chapter 1 in a new timeline skipped the Extraction project.
- If you've won the infiltration to steal umbilical cords but are short on them (e.g., due to storage destruction), the game now grants the extras so the mission can be completed. Shh, it's a secret.
- Fixed a regression causing early unlocks and "key message" states to be miscalculated, affecting prologue and Chapter 1 replays in the same profile.
- Added code to detect and self-heal more forms of corruption in the "_meta_core_timekeep.timeline" file, preventing issues with timeline creation.
Here's Update 18's full patch notes, if you're interested. Heart of the Machine wiki.
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.
To the Community: Thank You
Data and information are how we make decisions — how the Machine thinks, and how I do, too. Thanks to everyone who has shared their thoughts, feedback, or just spent time playing.
If you haven’t written a Steam review yet, I’d love to hear your thoughts. It’s a direct and meaningful way to have your voice heard, and it also helps inform what future patches focus on.