Act II: Origins - Out Now!

The wait is over... our biggest content update yet has finally arrived! 🥳

We took extra time to polish every detail, and instead of cutting corners to meet the deadline, we pushed ourselves to deliver everything we promised and more. Act II brings a whole lot of new content:

• Bigger, more diverse locations to explore

• New enemy types to test your survival skills

• More loot and discoveries

• Fresh challenges and rising tension around every corner

• And most importantly: your very own permanent underground shelter with full base-building mode!

This is the world of The Dead Await, expanding like never before. Dive in, claim your shelter, and shape your survival story.

🛠 Build Your Shelter 🛠

With over 50 unique cubes at your disposal, it’s time to design and shape your own underground shelter. One cube at a time, construct a shelter that fits your playstyle - whether that means maximizing production, fortifying defenses, or creating a safe haven for survivors.

• Automate resource production and manage workers, power, and supplies

• Build layered defenses to hold back relentless hordes

• Expand with five cube categories: Production, Base, Defense, Storage, and Decoration

• Unlock new cubes and upgrades as your shelter rating grows

Watch the teaser: View game page

But survival doesn’t come easy, the sound of machinery and construction risks drawing the dead closer. Keep your armory stocked by transferring spare weapons and gear, ensuring others are ready to fight when the walls are tested. And when the horde falls silent, send out scavenging expeditions to bring back resources and loot to keep your shelter thriving.

The Story Continues...

You and your crew are finally ready to head out to Westwood Hospital. But what’s really left of the place? Has it already been picked clean, or is something worse waiting inside?

You’ll find some answers there, but every answer only raises new questions. This chapter takes the outbreak in a direction you haven’t seen before.

The hardest part isn’t just surviving, it’s figuring out who people really are when the masks come off. Can you still tell who’s a friend, and who’s a threat?

Defeat Powerful New Enemies

You’ve faced zombies and bandits before... but in Act II, a new kind of threat emerges. Locals call them psychos, clowns, the deranged.

Maybe the end of the world broke their minds… or maybe they were always like this, and the apocalypse just made it clear.

Either way, it’s up to you to figure out what they really are and if there’s any sense to be made at all! 🤡

Explore Tons of New Content

In Act II, we’ve expanded on everything you enjoyed in Act I - there’s just more of it all!

You’ll find hours of new content to dive into: bigger areas to explore, new types of enemies to fight, more loot to grab, and plenty of fresh challenges to test yourself against.

And once food, water, and fuel stop being your biggest worry, you can finally kick back in your shelter, customize it, and plan ahead for what’s coming next. The world is still brutal, but now you’ve got more ways to face it.

Feedback & Future

We know the wait for Act II felt long, and we hear your feedback loud and clear. The Dead Await is a massive project for our small team, and we’ve been pushing hard to stay true to our promises, building it with care and dedication. ❤️

Your feedback has already helped shape the game into something better for everyone. Looking back at past updates and changelogs, it’s clear we’ve made real progress together with your support.

This update is mostly about new content, but we’ve also fixed a few long-standing issues the community mentioned:

• You can finally skip long cutscenes 🎉

• Trader reputation now increases properly instead of barely moving

And about the road to 1.0:

• Act II: Final will wrap up the new zone with the rest of the content and locations

• Act III (1.0 update) will be smaller and focused on the final main quest

Stay tuned for more updates, and thanks for being part of this journey. 🙏

We hope you enjoy the update! 😇

If we haven’t responded to your feedback yet, please bear with us a little longer. Thank you for your patience 🤍

v.0.9.0.0 - Act II: Origins Update (NOTE: the changelog doesn't list all the new content that's been added in previous betas but were restricted, see previous updates for that.)

Shelter & Base Building

• New Feature: Base Building is here! Design, expand, and customize your underground shelter.

• Added Communicator.

• Added Scavenge Mode.

• Added Production Tab.

• Added Horde Defense Mode.

• Added Armory.

• Added Shelter Tutorial.

• New Shelter Tips added to the Journal.

Quests

• New Main Quest: Our New Home

• New Main Quest: Hard Work

• New Main Quest: Meow

• New Side Quest: The Resurrection of Mr. Longs

• New Side Quest: Sophia’s Bag

• New Side Quest: Finding Abyss

• New Side Quest: Antiphobic

• New Side Quest: Cheese Run

• New Side Quest: Numbers

Random Events

• New Event: The Laughing Blockage

• New Event: Roadside Toll

Gameplay & Content

• All Act II content is now accessible.

• Added enemy spawns in Act II.

• Added Act III restriction fog (teasing the next stage).

Fixes & Changes

• Trade Reputation: now increases by 0.2% per 100 coins (up from 0.01%).

• Fixed: Two Man Job quest end event not triggering if combat is avoided.

• Added: Skip Cutscenes (hold ESC).

• Changed: Loading screen background.

• Fixed: Crash caused by Narcamax-E when attempting to auto-refill in camp storage.

• Changed: Max level cap increased to 15.

💞 How You Can Support Us

As a small indie team, there are so many ways you can help support us and the game.

• If you buy the game, please consider leaving an honest review on Steam! Reviews have a massive impact on indie games and we'd love to see your thoughts and experiences through a review.

• Sharing the game through word of mouth with family and friends or on social media with your followers can really help spread the word and give others a chance to discover their next adventure. So many indies are discovered with a simple share or casual discussion.

• Join the amazing community in our Discord and follow us on Twitter to share in the excitement and get to know other great gamers looking to survive.

Good luck surviving!
- Shotx