Update Notes: Early Access Update #2 - Infection

23 Jul 2025Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

It's time.

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Early Access Update #2 Notes

Infection

What would a zombie game be without infection? From today's update, if your survivor is attacked by a zombie while out scavenging, there is now a chance of getting a Deep Wound. A Deep Wound will slowly reduce your survivor's health and can sometimes carry a zombie infection. A Deep Wound can also cause a High Fever State, which causes survivors to take more damage in combat. Your survivor may pull through with nothing but a scar, or they may become Infected. It's up to you to decide if it's worth the risk of keeping them in your shelter…

Difficulty Settings

The power is in your hands! You can now select a difficulty setting at the start of a playthrough. Available settings are Casual, Normal, Hard and Custom. Difficulty settings adjust factors including survivor needs, damage taken, enemy health, barricades, stealth sensitivity, resources, infection risk and phase restarts. For players updating their game in the middle of a playthrough, their difficulty will default to Normal. You cannot adjust your difficulty in the middle of a playthrough.

New Zombie Threats

Walton City is less predictable than ever. There are now a multitude of new zombie threats beginning to appear across the city, that may behave in different ways than before…

Adjustments

Adjusted the Shelter Stations so survivors are now always able to use them, even if their needs are very low. The only exception is if they have the Broken Wrist State.
Adjusted consumable items so survivors can now use them while they are out scavenging. Items that require a phase to take effect still won't be instant. Players will need to return to their shelter alive to gain the effect of these items after consuming.
Adjusted Hunger drain for Normal difficulty. Survivors now lose about 15% less Hunger per phase.
Adjusted the dodge mechanic so your survivor will always dodge, even if they're in the middle of attacking.
Adjusted zombie group combat so only the one at the front can do uninterruptible retaliation attacks on your survivor.
Adjusted zombie group combat so that zombies in a group can no longer be knocked down by melee attacks. (They can still be knocked down by bricks that are aimed at them.)
Adjusted the difficulty of locations so that it can now increase as the game advances forward in time. This will impact the zombie spawns of some stages, with new zombies appearing in stages that have been visited before.
Rebalanced human NPCs to recover less health when they get up after being knocked down.
Improved the line of sight system that blurs where the survivor can't see while scavenging. It should now better represent what a survivor would see and have fewer graphical issues and less blurring at the edges.
Adjusted the Queasy State. The amount of Hunger survivors get back from eating food is reduced by 35% while they have the Queasy State.
Renamed a number of States, including "Drained" to "Tired", "Collapsing" to "Exhausted", "Gnawing Hunger" to "Starving" and "Depressed" to "Hopeless".
Added (Fatal) variants to States that highlight that a survivor may die from these in an upcoming phase if not alleviated.
Adjusted survivor death so that if they die due to a needs related cause, they will die before the Day Log shows up in the phase.
Renamed the "Fuel" item to "Gasoline".
Reduced the noise range of Throwables that aren't noise-centric.
Added new hit reactions for zombies to non-knife weapon attacks.
Improved the Makeshift Hammer attack animations
Changed the animations for knife weapons to be stabs. Affects Scalpel, Screwdriver, Broken Bottle, Scissors and Makeshift Knife.
Adjusted the animation for when survivors fail a door barge.
Moved the trigger point for the massacre area in RM&K Communications.
Removed the zombie that is very close to the spawn point at Briarwood Motel to prevent the issue where they can start attacking a survivor before the player has control.
Adjusted the Plan UI so players can now unpin a Plan, and even if there is no Plan pinned, players will still get a notification if they complete a Plan's objectives.
Adjusted scavenge assignment so that when the player cancels a scavenge, the items they equipped from that scavenge will still be there the next time they assign a survivor.
Added text to the Barricade attack screen that appears when the Barricade damage amount is increasing.
Added UI improvements. While in the Shelter, clicking on your current survivor's portrait or State will open up their Survivor info screen, and hovering the mouse over most buttons in the game will put it into a selected State (when using keyboard and mouse).
Changed crafting screens so that recipes that survivors currently can't craft are now greyed out.
Added glyphs to indicate to the player where survivors can crawl under.
Decreased the number of skulls on the Map location information panel.
Updated the Six-Pack icon to show a six pack instead of a bottle.
Made the character portraits a bit more crisp.
Added visual polish to some industrial building models.

Fixes

Fixed the pistol's aiming angle to better represent where it's shooting.
Fixed the issue where the Map was saying "new locations discoverable" for Millwood Manor as this location does not have a Vantage Point.
Fixed zombies sometimes spawning inside the fridge at 15 Independence Blvd.
Fixed the issue of footsteps sounding too quiet when indoors.
Fixed the scale of Christine's model for scavenging so her animations line up properly.
Stopped Lester's stash being shown as available loot on the Map when players didn't have it unlocked via his Shelter Event.
Fixed an issue with double-sided cover spots where survivors would sometimes still get spotted.
Fixed vaulting so survivors are less likely to bump into a nearby zombie while trying to sneak up on them.
Fixed an issue where some doors would only break to the right, regardless of which direction they were barged from.
Fixed an issue where sometimes a knocked-down enemy would get up and then immediately do a retaliation attack on survivors.
Fixed an issue where survivors could get stuck after trying to ground-execute an enemy near or behind doors and walls.
Fixed an issue when transferring items while scavenging. After the player transfers the last item out of a loot point, they will stay selected on the empty loot point instead of shifting selection into their survivor’s backpack. This prevents the player from accidentally transferring items back to the loot point when clicking fast.
Fixed a bug where you could attempt to assign a second survivor to the Map station at Texas Sports Supply before you had upgraded the Map Station.
Fixed an issue where survivors could get stuck on the ladder at Texway Gas Hart St.
Fixed an issue where the Nightmare State could also affect the amount of Rest gained from drinking Coffee.
Fixed an issue where characters could get knocked down or react in the wrong direction when they are hit with a projectile.
Fixed an issue where zombies won't attack survivors if they are just outside of the left entrance of St Bernadette Hospital.
Fixed an issue in Texway Gas Green St where there was a zombie who wouldn't attack survivors until they were hit.
Reduced some flickering around the Kinski Foundation Gallery background.

Coming in August for Update #3

is a smaller update which will focus mostly on getting you equipped with an expanded range of firearms including the long-awaited shotgun, rifle and assault rifle, because

Coming in September for Update #4

is an all new Escape Plan. There'll be new characters to meet and recruit, new locations to explore, and a new way to get you the hell out of Walton City…

Don't forget to join us in the Discord: https://discord.gg/Xd8RPnRZjx

Harriet &

the Into the Dead team