Secret Rooms, Tactical Scans & Reward Rework
This update significantly expands run variety, improves the clarity of combat and reward choices, and fixes several issues related to pausing, timers, controllers, ultrawide displays, and gameplay flow.
The biggest additions include Secret Rooms, achievement rewards, Tactical Scans, the new Tempo Chain upgrade, and a complete redesign of the in-run Patch Market.
Secret Rooms
Rare Secret Breaches can now appear during eligible runs, allowing you to leave the Grid temporarily and enter special challenge rooms.
Forgotten Cache - Enter an abandoned archive chamber filled with circuit relays, pressure plates, memory gates, hazards, and a secured reward cache.
Gilded Rush - Enter a timed Secret Room packed with coins. Collect as much as possible and reach the exit before the chamber seals.
Secret Rooms use multiple layouts selected for each run.
Secret Room state, active puzzles, timers, routes, and pending rewards are preserved when saving and reloading.
Secret Room rewards can include permanent coins, temporary powerups, or run mutations.
Some rooms contain safer and riskier routes with different reward outcomes.
Secret Room discoveries and completion statistics are now tracked in the Codex.
Added dedicated Secret Room music, sound effects, animations, transitions, and HUD objectives.
Achievement Rewards
Achievements can now provide permanent coin rewards.
Unlocked achievements can now have their rewards claimed from the Achievements screen.
Rewards can be claimed individually or with the new Claim All button.
Added a Ready filter for achievements with unclaimed rewards.
The Achievements screen now shows your current permanent coin balance.
Added reward animations, coin effects, and new achievement reward sounds.
Claimed achievement rewards are saved permanently and cannot be collected twice.
Coins earned from achievements unlocked during a run are now shown more clearly in the run summary.
Tactical Scans
New enemies can now trigger Tactical Scans that explain their most important mechanics directly during gameplay.
Added Tactical Scans for the Hunter and Crawler.
Full scans pause the action, focus the camera, and highlight safe and dangerous attack directions.
Minimal scans show a shorter gameplay callout without the full presentation.
Tactical Scans can be set to Full, Minimal, or Off in the Gameplay options.
Added an option to reset Tactical Scan viewing history.
Scan prompts adapt to keyboard, controller, and touch input.
Skipping or disabling a scan does not incorrectly mark unseen information as completed.
Tempo Chain Run Upgrade
Added a new food-based scoring upgrade.
Eat enough food within a time window to complete a Tempo Chain.
Completing a chain grants bonus score.
Higher upgrade stacks increase both the available time and the score reward.
Tempo Chain progress and remaining time are displayed during the run.
Tempo Chain state is preserved when saving and restoring an active run.
Patch Market Rework
The in-run shop has been rebuilt into a wider and clearer Patch Market.
Added a new Patch Market header with Patch artwork and a clearer currency display.
The market now adapts between wide and compact layouts depending on resolution and UI scale.
Offer cards use clearer sizing, spacing, and information density.
Different offer types now have more distinct visual accents.
Affordability and current coin balance are easier to read.
Upgrade offers provide clearer information about their next stack.
Improved keyboard and controller focus navigation.
Improved card selection and purchase handling.
Back and cancel inputs now exit or continue from the market more consistently.
Improved handling of Contraband payments and restricted offer combinations.
Enemy and Combat Updates
Hunter directional armor - Some Hunters can now appear with protective plates covering specific sides.
Attacking an armored side breaks the plate but does not damage the Hunter.
Attacking a side without a plate damages the Hunter normally.
Hunter armor presentation becomes available through run progression connected to the Gatekeeper.
Enemy health pips have been redesigned for better readability.
Improved shield and health pip behavior at higher values.
Improved feedback when damage is blocked by invincibility.
Added a new invincibility head-glint and aura effect.
Improved enemy contact targeting and directional attack feedback.
Improved enemy turning behavior before contact attacks.
Improved Crawler bite feedback and damage labeling.
Boss and Progression Changes
Gatekeeper now appears at level 5.
Gridmaster now appears at level 16.
Late-run chapter progression has been adjusted around the new boss timing.
The maximum level available in the demo has been increased.
Demo progression thresholds and completion checks have been updated.
Several mutation unlock levels have been redistributed across later Anomaly progression.
Run Timer and Pause Safety
The run timer now advances only while gameplay is actively being played.
Time spent in shops, overlays, menus, transitions, and other non-playing states is no longer counted incorrectly.
Losing window focus or opening an external overlay can now require explicit input before gameplay resumes.
Gameplay no longer resumes unexpectedly while returning from interruptions.
Improved pause state synchronization between keyboard, controller, Steam Overlay, and focus changes.
Countdown and awaiting-input HUD elements now update more reliably after interruptions.
Improved input protection during scene transitions and modal windows.
Pause Menu Improvements
The pause menu can now show more information about the current run build.
Current run upgrades and active modifiers are easier to review.
Added enemy and hazard inspection from the paused game state.
Enemy and hazard inspection uses Codex-style descriptions and mechanic tooltips.
Improved pause menu layout, scaling, readability, and controller navigation.
HUD and Objective Improvements
Improved HUD placement on wide and ultrawide displays.
Improved objective banner behavior across different aspect ratios.
Objective introductions can now be minimized manually.
Improved the transition between objective introductions and the active HUD objective.
Added support for bonus food spawns during food-based objectives.
Improved powerup status chips, stack indicators, and rich tooltips.
Improved score, currency, and run-stat color consistency.
Improved the Transmission Feed lifecycle and cleanup during rapid message bursts.
Ultrawide, Resolution, and UI Scaling
Expanded ultrawide and safe-area support across the main menu, shops, Codex, achievements, upgrades, options, pause menu, game-over screen, and other interfaces.
Added additional resolution options, including 2560x1080, 3840x1600, and 5120x1440.
Improved UI placement on 21:9, 32:9, Steam Deck, and compact displays.
Added reusable safe-area handling across multiple screens.
Options screens now adapt between single-column and multi-column layouts.
Improved UI behavior when using increased text or interface scaling.
Improved dialog sizing and positioning so confirmation windows remain inside the visible screen.
Improved controller focus behavior on responsive and resized layouts.
Codex and Readability
Improved Codex loading and search responsiveness.
Added deferred loading and cache invalidation improvements for large Codex collections.
Added Secret Room entries and statistics.
Improved enemy, hazard, upgrade, and mechanic tooltip consistency.
Added clearer links between reward descriptions and related mechanics.
Improved score-to-currency conversion explanations.
Improved class-style rule explanations and active-style tooltips.
Improved player-facing names and descriptions across supported languages.
Story Audio
Patch and Gridmaster can now be muted separately from the story overlay.
Muted speaker settings persist after saving and reloading.
Muting a speaker stops the current voice line immediately.
Unmuting can resume the currently displayed voice line.
Speaker controls now use dedicated on/off icons and tooltips.
Improved voice playback repeat handling and story voice settings.
Demo Updates
Added an optional exit survey to the demo.
The survey can ask why the player is leaving, whether they want to continue playing, and which area needs improvement.
An optional written comment can be added.
The survey can be skipped at any time.
Improved survey keyboard and controller navigation.
Improved Steam Deck text-input handling.
Updated demo completion, save compatibility, and progression checks.
Audio and Feedback
Added new sound effects for Secret Rooms, achievement rewards, enemy abilities, hazards, shields, menus, and run feedback.
Improved multiple UI sounds to reduce harshness and listening fatigue.
Added clearer audio feedback for achievement claiming, reward selection, objective updates, pausing, and resuming.
Improved combat feedback for bites, shields, invincibility blocks, hazards, and resource transfers.
Improved missing-audio handling to prevent invalid resources from causing loading issues.
Performance and Stability
Reduced unnecessary board and terrain synchronization work.
Improved performance when searching for available board cells in crowded levels.
Improved terrain update profiling and regression coverage.
Improved save handling for achievements, story mute settings, active runs, Secret Rooms, and profile-specific settings.
Improved Codex opening and search performance.
Improved menu scene caching and preload behavior.
Improved cleanup of temporary effects, tweens, overlays, and UI transitions.
Improved controller back-navigation protection to prevent duplicate scene transitions.
Added and updated extensive automated tests for progression, shops, UI layouts, combat mechanics, Secret Rooms, achievements, Tactical Scans, timers, saving, and pause behavior.
Localization
Added localization for the new Secret Rooms, achievement rewards, Tactical Scans, shop content, options, tooltips, and gameplay feedback.
Corrected numerous class, mutation, Gridbreak, enemy, hazard, objective, and mechanic descriptions.
Improved terminology and multiplier formatting across supported languages.
This update touches many interconnected run-flow, reward, combat, UI, and save systems.
If you notice anything unclear, incorrectly translated, or broken, please report it through the in-game feedback option or the Steam Discussions.