The Cluckles are back and meaner than ever in The Bwoking Dead: Reanimated, a whole new 16-player PvE mode.
Elsewhere on the island, Super Spiders and Anteaters have been unleashed to deal with all those pesky new Super Bugs, Zombie Joes have been spotted in the Royale, and Howloween has kicked off alongside the new season!
Highlights:
- The Bwoking Dead: Reanimated is a whole new 16-player PvE mode with new special zombie variants, updated quests, and milestone rewards
- All the new Super Bugs have attracted Super Spiders & Super Anteaters, both now unlockable in the Research Lab
- The Battle Royale now has Infection Zones, high-risk areas where swarms of Zombie Joes stand between you and better loot
- The Reanimated Pass is packed with tactical gear, sleepwear, and other Zombie Joe survival essentials, while the Pixelated Starter Pack features SAR’s first-ever pixel items
- Howloween returns with three weeks of challenges and the new Super Mothman breed
- New shop items, Twitch Drops, and quality of life improvements like seeing your squadmates’ weapons and ammo when opening your inventory
There’s a whole lot new in the Reanimated Update, so let’s dive into it!
The Bwoking Dead: Reanimated
You’ve been asking for years, and it’s finally here: our first-ever PvE mode!
Up to 16 Super Animals must survive several increasingly challenging waves of Zombie Joes and destroy their zombie nests before making it to the Giant Eagle extraction.
Unfortunately for the survivors, the Cluckles have evolved too, with new mutated Zombie Joes and Zombie Emus joining the horde…
In addition to regular Zombie Joes and Red Zombie Joes, you’ll face several dangerous new variants:
- Wandering Joes - Weaker Joes that seem a bit lost and can’t coordinate as well with the other Joes.
- Speedy Joes - Joes that have fused with Speedy mushrooms. They are, as you’d expect, speedy.
- Zombie Emus - Just as fast as a normal Giant Emu, but a lot harder to take down.
- Zombie Beauty Joes - These nest guardians protect hatching Zombie Joes. Cluck around and find out!
- Skunk Joes - Zombie Joes that explode into a mist of skunk gas when defeated.
To help even the odds, Zombie Joes can now take extra damage from headshots, and several weapons can pierce through multiple Joes at once.
Between waves, Zombie Egg nests will appear around the map. Destroy them before they hatch or you’ll have even more dangerous Joes to deal with in the next wave. Taking them out can also reward you with ammo and loot to help prepare for what’s coming next.
Once you’ve escaped the Cluckles, you can take on tougher runs with stacking debuffs for bonus XP. There are 10 Threat Levels to work through, with each win unlocking the next level and awarding more XP as you climb!
The Bwoking Dead NPC quests in the Social Hub have also been updated for the new mode, with two new questlines and milestone rewards to earn.
You can also revive any downed player in the match, even outside your own squad, but full respawns at Respawn Tanks are still limited to your squad.
During the first week, matches will also have a 50% chance of taking place at night for extra spookiness!
Dev Note: Why Reanimated?
The Bwoking Dead first arrived five years ago, and we’ve learned a lot since then about what worked and what didn’t. One of the biggest issues with the original infection format was that getting infected often felt more like losing than switching sides, and we saw a lot of players leave the match rather than continue playing as a Zombie Joe.
Many of you have also been asking us for a PvE mode for years. Since the part of The Bwoking Dead that was consistently most fun was surviving hordes of Zombie Joes and fighting your way to extraction, it was a natural fit to make that the foundation of Reanimated. We built the new mode around expanding that co-op survival experience with more enemies, objectives, progression, and replayability.
The original infection mode isn’t disappearing entirely, though! It’s now called The Bwoking Dead (Legacy) and will remain playable in Private Matches. If you’re passionate about the original mode, our Discord is a great place to find like-minded players and organize or join community events hosting it. We’re also thinking about more ways to support legacy and experimental modes in the future without spreading players too thin, and we’d love to hear your ideas.
Infection Zones in the Royale
Zombie Joes have escaped The Bwoking Dead and invaded the Animal Royale! These new Infection Zones are swarming with Zombie Joes, but also offer better loot for those brave enough to venture in and clear them out.
Just be careful going in unarmored: the Cluckles are known to be contagious…
Super Anteaters & Spiders
Looks like all the new Super Bugs have attracted some attention. To keep them under control, the Lab Labs have created two new Super Animals: Super Anteaters and Super Spiders!
Super Ants beware: Super Anteaters can be unlocked in the Research Lab at level 60:
- Super Anteater
- Super Smoky Anteater
- Super Banana Anteater
- Super Tamandua Anteater
The Lab Labs also decided the island needed a few more legs in the royale. Super Spiders can be unlocked at level 70:
- Super Spider
- Super Tarantula
- Super Black Widow
- Super Peacock Spider
- Super Peacock Peacock Spider
And for those who’d rather not see spiders, our new Arachnophobia mode issues every Super Spider a cute little bunny suit. Just don’t look inside.
Reanimated Pass
Whether you’re preparing for the Zombie Joe invasion or planning to sleep through it, the Reanimated Pass has you covered with tactical gear, sleepwear, a Pot Helmet, Bedside Lamp, and other mildly questionable survival essentials, plus the Mini Anteater pet and Zombie Dance emote.
- During this season, the Reanimated Pass will be available for a discounted price of 550 SAW Tickets.
- As always, Animal Passes never expire, so you can continue working on passes you own from previous seasons on your second track, or purchase previous ones from The Archive for 750 SAW Tickets.
Pixelated Starter Pack
Finally from Pixile Studios: pixels. The Pixelated Starter Pack is here!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5226970/Super_Animal_Royale_Pixelated_Starter_Pack/
Pixelated Starter Pack includes:
- Super Pixel Fox
- Pixel Sword melee
- Pixel Outfit
- 600 SAW Tickets
The Super Natural Starter Pack will remain available for one more week before going into the vault. If you miss it, its cosmetics and Super Animal breed will be available in the SAW Shop Archive in about one month!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4786190/Super_Animal_Royale_Super_Natural_Starter_Pack/
Howloween 2026 Event
The island is already full of shambling chickens, but there’s room for more frights and delights: Howloween is here with 3 weeks of challenges, cosmetics, and new Super Animal breeds!
The island is in the Howloween spirit too, with a haunted fountain, spectating specters above gravestones, an undead Delivery Mole, and more. SAW legal just asks that we remind all Super Animals not to drink the orange fountain water.
Keep an eye out for Candy Corn scattered around the island, which restores a small bit of health when eaten. You’ll also find festive jack-o’-lanterns to smash for useful loot!
5 challenge rewards to earn for Week 1
- Barbed Wire Outfit | Collect Candy Corn (1000)
- 1500 XP | Smash Jack-O’-Lanterns (15)
- Brain Cap | Headshot Zombie Joes in The Bwoking Dead (50)
- 750 Carl Coins | Open Ammo Crates in The Bwoking Dead (5)
- Eyebrow Glasses | Land in an Infection Zone in the Royale (1)
New Super Animal Breed
- Super Mothman (Available in the Research Lab at level 70)
For more Howloween details, make sure to visit Jason Boarhees on the west side of the Welcome Center! As always, new Super Animal breeds introduced during events stay permanently available in the Research Lab, so unlocking them isn’t time-sensitive. Keep your eyes peeled for Week 2’s unlocks next Tuesday, October 20th.
New in the SAW Shop
There’s a new Sheriff in town. And it could be you!
The Sheriff Bundle includes:
- Sheriff Hat
- Sheriff Outfit
- Sheriff Star accessory
Each one of these guns is packed full of 90s nostalgia.
The Neon Zebra Weapons Bundle includes:
- Neon Zebra AK
- Neon Zebra Silenced Pistol
- Neon Zebra Superite Laser
- Neon Zebra Dartfly Gun
The SAW Shop is also stocked with a new emote, outfit, festive glasses, and collar:
- Ripped Tartan outfit
- Bow emote
- Pink collar accessory
- Eyeball Glasses
New in Carl’s Cart
Carl has stocked his Cart with a handful of new items alongside legacy Howloween cosmetics.
- Shovel Gravestone
- Bat Bowtie
- Green Camo Umbrella
Beginning today, 48 legacy Howloween items will rotate through the Cart, with 8 available at a time and a fresh selection every 4 days, so keep an eye out for your favorites while they're back for the event!
Twitch Drops: Actually, Frankenstein was the Scientist
Need a new Howloween costume? Earn the Monster Set by linking your Super Animal and Twitch accounts on the SAR Drops website and watching Drops-enabled SAR streamers on Twitch:
- Monster Hat
- Monster Outfit
- Monster Bride Hair
- Monster Bride Dress
The campaign runs until Howloween ends Friday, November 6th!
Updates, Improvements & Bug Fixes
The Zombie Joe hordes aren’t the only things we’ve been dealing with this update. We’ve also been busy putting bugs to rest, improving performance, and making quality of life improvements across the game! A few fixes are arriving on PC first, with consoles to follow in the next update.
Quality of Life & Other Improvements
- Opening your inventory during Royale matches now shows your squadmates’ weapons and ammo in the top-right corner of the HUD.
- We’re also now testing the Discord Social SDK integration on PlayStation and Xbox too! Signing in with Discord lets you text your friends from in-game chat, see them in your friends list, and invite them to games.
- Map tooltips now work during matches for things like teammates, Infection Zones, Mole Crates, SvR flags, Respawn Tanks, and zombie nests.
- Added map icons for the unique shops at Victory Island and Mini Ranch.
- Emotes that support movement now have a walking icon to distinguish them from fixed position emotes.
- Improved rendering performance during eagle flights and umbrella drops by reducing unnecessary shadow calculations.
- Reduced the amount of visible grass during eagle flights and made grass load-in times consistent regardless of frame rate during umbrella drops. This should also slightly improve performance.
- Custom audio for certain cosmetics is now loaded and unloaded at run-time, reducing memory use.
- Updated the quick chat icons for respawn tanks and respawn vials.
- Updated font size in many places for Steam Deck.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed several cotton candy animals' hand color.
- Tweaked Super Slugcat's tail weights.
- Fixed bird animal tails in the sleepy emote.
- Fixed an issue where chat could stop working at the end of matches.
- Fixed a rare soft crash related to emotes when joining a Social Hub.
- Fixed a few timing bugs related to opening the photo booth at the same time as other screens.
- Fixed fish food lines showing in the photo booth.
- Fixed other players being able to push you while using MTN Stations or the Photo Booth.
- Applied a fix for a rare issue where loot on the ground could appear invisible until you walked away and returned.
- Fixed some NPCs missing 'hello' or other animations.
- NPC dialogue font now uses the correct one based on story language (applies to Chinese, Russian, Korean, and Japanese).
- Adjusted all text to use SAW instead of S.A.W.
- Fixed a memory leak between matches on consoles (previously fixed on PC).
- Party error popups now appear only in the Social Hub, not during matches.
- Reduced the likelihood of packet loss causing an authentication error during the ferry loading screen.
The following fixes and adjustments are available now on PC and will arrive on consoles in the next update:
- Fixed matchmaking auto-accept not working if you were in the MTN or BananOS.
- Adjusted the size of the level gems table in the main menu.
- Fixed controller users seeing "Press tab to change channels" below the chat box.
- Fixed the iris-in transition when loading into a match so its speed no longer depends on frame rate. Players below 144 Hz should notice a faster transition.
- Fixed characters being partially cut off in the main menu on ultrawide monitors.
- Improved the framing of the ferry, underground respawn, and victory scenes on ultrawide displays.
- Fixed several cases where bananafied projectiles could desync and cause banana traps to appear incorrectly.
- Fixed a gun animation glitch when dropping a weapon from inventory while on controller.
What’s next?
Now that v2.3 is live, we’ll be keeping a close eye on how Reanimated plays and on your feedback here on Steam and in our Discord server. Since this is our first PvE mode, let us know what you like, what isn’t working for you, and what you’d love to see us build on from here.
We’re also already hard at work on v2.4, our next major update coming later this year. We’ll have more to share on that soon!
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We hope you all have a blast surviving the Cluckles and celebrating Howloween. See you on the island, Super Animals!
- Michael, Logan, & the Community team