Early Access to 1.0
Early Access ran from 19 August 2025 to 4 November 2026. Four named updates added two zones, two weapons, wallrunning, a melee rework and the Chaos Terminal; no update wiped a save.
../../assets/official/arena-desert.jpg)
Fourteen months, four named updates, two new zones. The Early Access period is the reason the 1.0 build looks nothing like the launch build, and the record is unusually well documented: every major update came with a developer post that listed what changed and why.
The timeline
| Date | Update | What it added |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Aug 2025 | Early Access launch | Zones 01–03, four weapons, hard difficulty modes, Endless Run Mode, weapon skin terminal |
| 3 Sep 2025 | Launch patch | Three hack upgrades unlocked by default, assault rifle moved to Voidium, balance pass on Zone 02→03 |
| 6 Nov 2025 | CHAOS TERMINAL | Post-Zone-3 challenge terminal, Chaos Rating, Chaos Missions, 16 weapon chassis, 4 modules |
| 17 Feb 2026 | HARD RESET | Zone 04, wallrunning, SMG, 5 new enemies, SHIELDED variant, 6 modules, economy rework |
| 9 Apr 2026 | RECALIBRATION | 19 modules, melee scaling, Laceration, Recycler, Unreal Engine 5.7 |
| 7 Jun 2026 | ASCENSION | Zone 05, VOIDWEAVER, Ironclad and Voidout, Voltaic variant, Sniper Rifle, fire-mode refresh |
| Dec 2025 – Jun 2026 | 0.10.10, 0.11.18, 0.12.6, 0.13.4 | Four fix passes: achievements, audio, out-of-bounds enemies, sniper reload |
| 22 Aug 2026 | Price change | $19.99 → $29.99, final increase |
| 4 Nov 2026 | 1.0 | Zone 06, story conclusion, new boss, endgame hub, 5+ achievements |
Why the updates mattered more than the patch notes suggest
Take HARD RESET. The headline was Zone 04 and the SMG, but the changes underneath it rebuilt how a run is spent. Shops could be rerolled with Voidium. Higher difficulties paid more Voidium. The last enemy in an area clear dropped a Voidium pickup. Decrypting a hack automatically unlocked its first tier. Two hacks (Voidmax, Schematic Hyperdrive) were removed because they were no longer needed.
That is not content, it is pacing — and it is the difference between a run that stalls because you cannot afford a reroll and one that keeps moving.
RECALIBRATION did the same thing for melee. Melee damage now scales with enemy health, so it stays relevant in Zone 05 instead of becoming a joke by Zone 03. The Severance hack was deleted because it existed only to patch a scaling problem that no longer exists. Laceration was added as a stacking infliction that increases melee damage, which gave the new melee modules something to build around.
The engine swap
RECALIBRATION moved the game to Unreal Engine 5.7 and shipped FSR support with an updated DLSS. Daniel's framing in the March 2026 dev diary was honest about the cost: the upgrade was "a little turbulent" and needed a full QA pass before the April update could land. The payoff shows up in the patch notes rather than in screenshots — better rendering on lower-spec machines, physics optimisations, and a fix path for shader-compilation crashes.
What Early Access did not do
It did not wipe saves. HARD RESET's name refers to the story, and the developer said so before launch in bold: your save, unlocks and progression were safe. No update in the period reset progression.
It did not abandon the roadmap. The 1.0 column is the fourth revision of a public roadmap, and the previous three shipped every item on them. The one visible cancellation — an energy-budget system inspired by Hollow Knight's overcharming — was announced as scrapped in the March 2026 dev diary before it ever shipped, with the reasoning attached: it "just didn't feel right for VOID/BREAKER".
It did not add platforms. Every build in this period is Windows; Steam Deck compatibility arrived through Proton and Valve's verification, not a native port.
How to read this timeline if you are new
The practical takeaway is that 1.0 is not a launch build with a story tacked on. It is the sixth major version of a game that has been rebalanced in public for over a year, and the systems that people talk about — module stacking, wallrunning, melee scaling, the Chaos Terminal — were all added after launch in response to feedback.
The updates and patches page has the full change list by version. The roadmap page tracks what was promised against what shipped.
The demo ran in parallel
The Early Access period had a second track running alongside it: the demo. It shipped before the game did and kept getting patched after it launched, which is unusual and useful. The demo build went from 0.8.36 in May 2025 through 0.9.0, 0.9.2, and 0.9.25 before the Early Access launch in August, then picked up the same fixes as the main build.
Two of those patches matter if you are trying the demo now. 0.9.25 added Auto Sprint to the settings menu and made bosses staggerable, which changed the demo's first boss from a wall into a lesson. The same patch added Simplified Chinese.
The numbers behind the period
The developer published milestones as they happened, which gives the Early Access period a paper trail most solo projects do not have.
| Milestone | Figure | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Playtesters in the first 24 hours | 19,000 | 11 Apr 2025 |
| Playtesters and wishlists after week one | 45,000 each | 17 Apr 2025 |
| Playtesters whose feedback shaped the new demo | 3,500 | 29 May 2025 |
| Reviews at the time of the 0.13.4 patch | "Overwhelmingly Positive" | 18 Jun 2026 |
| Reviews today | 2,554 total, 93% positive (English) | 4 Nov 2026 |
What the period cost buyers
Nothing, if they bought early. The $19.99 launch price held until 22 August 2026, so anyone who bought in that window got fourteen months of updates, the 1.0 build, and the Supporter's Pack at the original price — the rare case where buying early was straightforwardly the better deal.
_Figures checked 4 November 2026 against official Steam announcements from Stubby Games and Playstack._
