Project Chromata - Stage 9 Is Live!

02 May 2026Developer post

Stage 9 is live! Something is waiting at the bottom of the layers. Something the Creators buried and hoped no one would never find.

New Steam Achievements have been added for Stage 9!

Hope you enjoy the update!

Patch Notes - Version 1.9.0

Global Updates:

Fixed Bug (Critical): Fixed an issue where the game's visuals would completely freeze upon opening on Windows. Actions still worked, but nothing updated on screen until resized or DevTools was opened.
Fixed Bug: Lore text no longer appears glowing or highlighted after the typewriter animation finishes naturally.
Fixed Bug: Steam achievements are now correctly re-granted when transferring a save to a new Steam account or from Itch.io to Steam.
Fixed Bug: The Stage 7 terminal decryption achievement was incorrectly named 'Codebreaker', clashing with the Stage 5 hidden [OVERRIDE] achievement of the same name. It has been renamed to 'Decrypted'.
Changed (Important): Amber and Magenta have swapped positions in the Production view. Amber is now in the centre column and Magenta on the left, matching colour theory.

Automation:

Fixed Bug: Fill % Auto Converge now correctly only counts the standard Light colors (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, White).

Interface:

Added: A glowing 'AUTO-FORGE' indicator is now displayed directly on the Quintessence tank in the Production view when Auto-Forge is active, so you know why your Quintessence isn't stockpiling.
Fixed Bug: The Auto-Converge input box now properly hides and stops glowing when opening menus like the Achievements or the Bug Reporter.
Fixed Bug: The Settings tabs (General, Visuals, Data) are now contained in a proper scrollable view, guaranteeing buttons will never overflow or overlap even at high UI Text Scale.

Null / Void Hunt:

Fixed Bug: The Null Store UI has been redesigned to pin the Essence tracker and Upgrades header to the top, preventing them from being cut off while scrolling.
Fixed Bug: Improved scrolling speed and smoothness in the Null Store, and fixed an issue where scrolling the store would also zoom the underlying Production view.

Performance:

Fixed Bug (Critical): In 'Extreme Low' visual effects mode, players were unable to select, explore, or stabilize sectors on the hexgrid.

Stage 1:

Fixed Bug: Production view scroll-to-zoom now works correctly that was not working for some users.

Stage 3:

Added: New Fractured Void structure — the Fractured Void Relay. Costs 10,000 Null Essence and permanently increases maximum Time Warp speed by +1 for each relay built.
Enhanced: Players can now cancel Monument placement by pressing the Escape key or by switching to a different tab.

Stage 4:

Added: Landmark Assault now includes a Reset View button so players can quickly recenter the battlefield if they pan or zoom too far away.
Changed: Landmark Assault fog-of-war memory now persists after completing a map, so revealed territory is still remembered on later replays.
Fixed Bug: Clearing an operation site with Pristine Infusion now grants the same assault log as a normal Landmark Assault clear, so players no longer need to replay the site to receive it.

Stage 8:

Changed: Reaching 1,000,000 Origin Essence at the end of Stage 8 no longer logs a misleading 'Initiate Stage 9' message before the other final requirements are met.
Added: Keyboard shortcuts for the Collision Chamber. Press 1–9 (or 0 for CH10) to select a chamber tab, [ / ] or ← / → to cycle the assigned attribute, and Space or Enter to fire the selected chamber.
Fixed Bug: On some window sizes, buttons failed to appear. The panel now compacts its layout when needed and always keeps the buttons visible.
Fixed Bug: The Upgrades and Discovery Scans panels in the Collision Chamber are now scrollable, preventing upgrades from being hidden off-screen vertically on landscape monitors.

Stage 9: