Thanks to everyone who has been playing the demo and sharing feedback. This update focuses on making combat, scavenging, crafting, building, and everyday play smoother while preserving existing progress.
Combat Improvements
Regular and fast zombies now give a clearer warning before lunging.
Lunges target where the player was when the warning began, making them easier to dodge.
Sword attacks can interrupt zombies during attack preparation and recovery, but not during lunge.
Driving Cut has been replaced with Pinning Cut, which can stop ordinary zombies in place instead of knocking them farther away.
Healer zombies are now more effective at supporting nearby allies.
Exploding zombies are no longer knocked backward by bullets.
Hostile survivors now have more varied appearances when possible.
Better Scavenging & Loot
Loot has been improved across several locations.
Hospitals now have dedicated medical loot.
Commercial District interiors now have more location-specific loot, including food, fuel, repair supplies, electronics, recipes, and rare finds.
The burger restaurant kitchen now has additional searchable storage.
Cooking Oil, Salt, and Spices can now appear in regular city loot.
Several useful recipe papers can now be found earlier.
Dead zombies now drop less ammo.
New Drinks
Six new shelf-stable drinks have been added:
Mango Juice
Orange Juice
Cranberry Juice
Three soda variants
They restore Hydration and Energy and can be consumed from either the Backpack or Hotbar.
Crafting & Building
Crafting now automatically uses ingredients stored in player storage.
Players now begin with several basic Carpentry furniture recipes.
Existing saves receive these recipes automatically.
The Fishing Net recipe has been rebalanced.
Crafting menus now have clearer subcategories and improved controller navigation.
Furniture placement is more precise and easier to align.
Buildings, traps, and fishing nets now snap cleanly to tiles.
Existing furniture stays in its current position unless moved.
Controls & Menus
Cooking stations and stockpile deposits now support faster quantity adjustments.
Hotbar navigation now wraps between both ends.
Added a Master Volume slider.
Audio labels and menu layouts have been cleaned up.
The Fishing Mini-Game Countdown setting has moved into Options.
Fixed several Steam Deck menu input issues.
Quests, Shops & Economy
Quests no longer request certain items that can only be purchased from camp merchants.
The Animal Housing objective now gives clearer purchasing instructions.
Shop counters only activate when the correct shopkeeper is present.
Fish processing no longer multiplies the total sale value of a catch.
Cooking fish pieces still provides a modest value increase.
Furniture can now be sold through the Sale Bin.
Tutorials & World Improvements
Outdoor exits are now more forgiving.
Fixed issues with entering doors while attacking.
Skipping the introduction no longer briefly shows the hidden setup area.
Added a new Infection tutorial covering infection growth, consequences, and antidotes.
The Water Canteen tutorial has been expanded and corrected.
A bike dismount prompt now appears the first time the bike is used.
Environmental door sounds now fade properly with distance.
Stability & Save Support
Fixed a rare issue where saving during certain animations could leave the player stuck after reloading.
Fixed lingering animations interfering with the automatic 1:00 AM return home.
Affected saves now repair themselves automatically.
Failed or interrupted saves now preserve the previous valid save and recovery backups.
Existing demo saves remain supported, with applicable fixes and new starting recipes applied automatically.
If you’ve played the demo, please consider leaving a Steam review. Reviews are one of the most helpful ways to support Ashfield Hollow, and feedback continues to directly shape improvements to the game.