The Unlisted Return is now available in Liminal Protocol. This update adds our first Story chapter, rebuilds the facility around working machinery and containment spaces, and brings that industrial look across the rest of the game.

New Story chapter: The Unlisted Return

• Begin at an isolated receiver station: a persistent base with an assignment desk, radio, equipment bench, return monitor, continuity import and recovered-evidence archive.
• Play three connected core assignments: Arrival Without Dispatch, Return Circuit and Hold the Return. Investigate conflicting records, trace machinery and secure the receiver while uncovering a larger mystery.
• Assignments begin with quiet exploration. Operating consequential machinery escalates the danger, with different threats and procedures across the chapter.
• Question radio contacts through optional text conversations, consult briefings and revisit recovered records.
• Story has no floor countdown. The existing timed Campaign remains available as Facility Runs, with its existing progression retained.

Evidence, equipment and crossover investigations

• Recover physical records and extract to add them to your archive. Picking up evidence alone does not bank it.
• Unlock equipment choices at the receiver. Survey Cell reduces lamp drain at the cost of slower recharge; Aegis Harness provides more shielding against sanity drain at the cost of movement speed. It does not protect against lethal contact.
• Added support for compatible continuity codes carrying accomplishments from Beyond Dawn and Wasteland.
• Outside the Drawing uses the recovered unfinished survey; Before the Waterline follows the recovered dry-stores ledger. These additional investigations require the corresponding imported record and progress through the core chapter.
• An imported P-04 restoration record opens an additional receiving-area service route. Other supported records can be examined in the archive.

Hands-on missions and a denser facility

• Replaced repeated Story terminal interactions with purpose-built objects: removable record spools and packet canisters, breakers, motor isolators, patch bays, handwheels, counters, survey instruments and an archive selector.
• Machines visibly respond to accepted actions: contacts move, routing changes, flywheels stop and recovered items leave their cradles.
• Routine actions complete directly, with short field notices and optional rereading. More involved tasks are reserved for key moments.
• Reduced the size of the receiver and first mission's receiving areas. Added service cores, equipment recesses, offset partitions and connected work aisles.
• Added containment cells, large glass fluid vessels, specimen banks, pump trains, centrifuges and filtration stacks. Moving specimens, bubbles, fluid surfaces, rotors and gauges bring the equipment to life.
• Expanded supporting props with tools, cart handles, labeled lockers, strapped cargo, rack plumbing and cable clamps. Recharge stations now have reservoirs, a charge gauge and a tethered connector.

Industrial overhaul across the game

• Extended Story's industrial presentation to Facility Runs and co-op, Endless, Cipher Runs, Gauntlets, training and Monster Mode.
• Added steel paneling, ribbed decking, bulkheads, overhead pipes, cable trays, air returns, drains, department signs and practical light housings.
• Generated facilities now use compact versions of the process equipment wherever space allows, while preserving doorway approaches and objective routes in both realities.
• The museum and Black Annex share the new material treatment, while the Void and Annex retain their distinct atmosphere.
• Added machinery ambience and improved distant equipment rendering so large vats and containment cells retain their shape across a room.

Operative movement and death effects

• Reworked first-person arms with lower, more separated hands, shoulder and elbow movement, a steadier lamp hand and a free-hand reach for Story interactions.
• Walking animation follows actual movement; pushing into a wall no longer produces a running arm swing.
• Co-op operatives now animate forward movement, backpedaling, strafing, starts, stops, turns, breathing and head movement.
• Teammates visibly hold their lamps, read scanners, calibrate, recharge and interact. Improved remote movement smoothing and release of completed action poses.
• All seven operative death cinematics now dissolve the body into ASCII fragments and vanish instead of leaving a fallen body behind.

Flashlight and suit readability

• Halved the base flashlight drain, doubling standard battery runtime. Existing equipment and mode modifiers still apply; recharge speed is unchanged.
• Fixed large black patches on illuminated machinery and other facility objects, including at low battery.
• Labeled the suit's battery, shield, sanity, coherence, heading and timer readings. Battery and shield now include percentages.
• Amber battery bars show remaining charge and go dark when empty. Cyan shield indicators remain separate.
• Added contextual explanations for lamp power, recharge and resource loss, plus updated tutorial, manual and Story briefing guidance.
• Removed the legacy floor-countdown warning from Story and marked its timer slot NO TIMER.

Placement, navigation and Story co-op

• Fixed fans appearing in doorways or hanging off unsupported wall edges. Fans, signs, vents and other wall details now require suitable wall backing and clearance in both realities.
• Improved equipment collision and co-op agreement around rotated machinery. S-NAV accounts for discovered solid furniture.
• Kept authored objective approaches, bypasses, extraction routes and threat-release paths clear of conflicting decoration.
• Story supports solo play and co-op with up to four Operators. The host's campaign and imported records determine the shared world; guests retain eligible extracted evidence as personal fieldnotes.
• Story saves support resuming an active assignment after quitting. A party wipe resets the assignment and loses carried evidence, while retaining explored maps and previously banked records.

Before you play

• Choose Play > Story to enter the new chapter.
• Everyone in a co-op session must update to this build. Story remains tied to the host; losing the host ends the shared session.
• Story progression and personal fieldnotes currently save locally and do not synchronize through Steam Cloud.
• Returning beta testers may need to resurvey the redesigned receiving and receiver layouts; earned campaign progress and evidence are retained.
• Movement footsteps are currently muted pending replacement audio. Other game audio remains enabled.