The road to 1.0, and past it

Where the road goes.

27 stops from the first build to the 1.0 release, then 5 expansion packs beyond it. 11 stops are built and in the game today; the rest are still being dug. Pick a stop to see what is in it.

Built
11 of 27
Next stop
M12 Roads and rivers
After 1.0
5 expansion packs
Build
v0.1.37
Part IV: polished and funPart V: completePart VI: releasedAfter 1.0: expansion packsM1Stable and measuredM2The first hourM3Outings that become storiesM4A place in the cityM5The spineM6Co-op as a first-class modeM7One productM8The year turnsM9The body and the kitM10The four modesM11The armouryM12Roads and riversM13People worth rememberingM14A community of your ownM15More cityM16What hunts youM17Every run differentM18The sound of the cityM19Every PC, every playerM20Ready for strangersM21Safe to play onlineM22The Campaign, finishedM23Ready for SteamM24A fair houseM25The open cityM26The shop window1.0The 1.0 release candidatePACK 1Dead WaterPACK 2Over the WallPACK 3Dead AirPACK 4Below HaldenPACK 5Lights OnBuiltIn progressPlannedExpansion pack

M12In progressYou are here

Roads and rivers

Vehicles as a way of life

  • Not yet: Traffic and pursuers on the roads
  • Not yet: Garages, repairs and vehicle upgrades
  • Not yet: Many more vehicles: buses, fire engines, police cars, army trucks
  • Not yet: Motorbikes and bicycles
  • Not yet: Boats on the river and in the harbour
  • Not yet: Blocked roads to clear or find a way round
  • Not yet: Fighting from and against vehicles; a camper van as a moving base
  1. Part IV: polished and fun
  2. M1Stable and measuredBuilt

    M1Built

    Stable and measured

    The foundation everything else stands on

    • Built: Opt-in crash and error reporting through the Worker
    • Built: In-game "report a problem" key
    • Built: Headless soak to day 60 with memory and save-size budgets
    • Built: Chunk-apply streaming hitch fixed
    • Built: Frame-budget pass under a full horde with gore and vehicles
    • Built: Save migration tests for every schema ever shipped
    • Built: Known-issues list kept in docs/
  3. M2The first hourBuilt

    M2Built

    The first hour

    The stretch that decides whether anyone keeps playing

    • Built: Character creation: occupation plus two traits
    • Built: A guided but unscripted first day with a journal objective line
    • Built: Inventory UX: drag, quick-move, sort, compare, weight, tooltips
    • Built: Feel pass on movement, aim, recoil, melee timing, looting speed
    • Built: Juice on every action: hit, pickup, craft, level-up
    • Built: Greenridge's threat and loot curve tuned for day one
    • Built: Full controller support
  4. M3Outings that become storiesBuilt

    M3Built

    Outings that become stories

    • Built: A slow outing director that paces pressure and relief
    • Built: Ten hand-made hero locations, each with a story and a reward
    • Built: Real stealth: sneaking, distractions, silent takedowns, darkness
    • Built: Every special infected telegraphed, with a counter
  5. M4A place in the cityBuilt

    M4Built

    A place in the city

    Base, faction, economy, companions

    • Built: Base building: claim, barricade, beds, storage, workbenches, rain, generator, garden
    • Built: Raids on your base when you're careless
    • Built: Faction membership with ranks, perks, gear and vendors
    • Built: Reputation that closes doors: kill-on-sight, bounties, locked gates, hunters
    • Built: An economy with real sinks and faction-shaped trader stock
    • Built: Companions: a recruited survivor and the dog
    • Built: Farm animals kept in settlements
  6. M5The spineBuilt

    M5Built

    The spine

    A run that ends rather than stops

    • Built: A main arc that runs to its end
    • Built: The city escalating day by day (Bloom spread, faction shifts, supply)
    • Built: Ground Zero as a true endgame zone
    • Built: A run summary telling the story of the run
    • Built: Unlockable occupations and starts
    • Built: Permadeath legacy carried into the next survivor's city
  7. M6Co-op as a first-class modeBuilt

    M6Built

    Co-op as a first-class mode

    • Built: Tooling for the four-hour soak, and every drift it finds fixed
    • Built: Desync detection: periodic host/guest state hashes, logged
    • Built: Reconnect after a dropped connection
    • Built: Pings, markers and quick-chat
    • Built: A shared base
    • Built: Infected and loot scaled per player
    • Built: Co-op-only outing-director moments
  8. M7One productBuilt

    M7Built

    One product

    Presentation to a single standard

    • Built: An art-direction bible and a pass over every AssetGen sheet
    • Built: Visible clothing and gear on the rig
    • Built: A VFX pass: fire, smoke, explosions, weather
    • Built: Animation blending and NPC drivers
    • Built: Real death animations for everything that can die
    • Built: An audio mix pass by ear
    • Built: Accessibility completed: colourblind, captions, UI scale, aim assist, rebinding
    • Built: A UI consistency sweep of every screen
  9. Part V: complete
  10. M8The year turnsBuilt

    M8Built

    The year turns

    Seasons that change the city

    • Built: Four seasons with their own day length, weather and look
    • Built: Snow that shows tracks; floods, heat haze and fields that burn
    • Built: Crops, forage and animals that follow the year
    • Built: Hunting and fishing: traps, snares and a rod
    • Built: Seasonal events: blizzard nights, floods, wildfires, the harvest fair
    • Built: Settlements, traders and caravans that live by the season
  11. M9The body and the kitBuilt

    M9Built

    The body and the kit

    Body-part health, armour and what a survivor carries

    • Built: Body-part health, Tarkov-style, on a figure in the inventory
    • Built: Medicine for each wound: tourniquets, splints, surgery, stimulants
    • Built: Armour, helmets and plates that protect the parts they cover
    • Built: Rigs, bags and holsters that shape a load-out
    • Built: Many more things to wear, found across the city
  12. M10The four modesBuilt and played

    M10Built and played

    The four modes

    Four ways to play: a campaign through the city, and a city that is always open

    • Built: The four modes in the menus, saves and lobby; a save loads only on the version that made it
    • Built: Chapter 1: Greenridge
    • Built: Chapter 2: the Yards
    • Built: Chapters 3 and 4: the Port and the Core
    • Built: Chapter 5
  13. M11The armouryBuilt

    M11Built

    The armoury

    Weapons worth choosing between

    • Built: Weapon mods on a workbench, each a trade-off
    • Built: Twenty more guns, a pocket pistol to a grenade launcher
    • Built: Ammunition types, found and traded
    • Built: Bows and crossbows
    • Built: Crafted and upgraded melee weapons
    • Built: More to throw: noise-makers, smoke, flashbangs
    • Built: A range to try it all
  14. M12Roads and riversIn progress

    M12In progressYou are here

    Roads and rivers

    Vehicles as a way of life

    • Not yet: Traffic and pursuers on the roads
    • Not yet: Garages, repairs and vehicle upgrades
    • Not yet: Many more vehicles: buses, fire engines, police cars, army trucks
    • Not yet: Motorbikes and bicycles
    • Not yet: Boats on the river and in the harbour
    • Not yet: Blocked roads to clear or find a way round
    • Not yet: Fighting from and against vehicles; a camper van as a moving base
  15. M13People worth rememberingPlanned

    M13Planned

    People worth remembering

    Characters and the stories they carry

    • Not yet: Twenty named characters with histories, wants and quest lines
    • Not yet: Choices in their stories that end in different ways
    • Not yet: NPCs who remember what you did
    • Not yet: Faction leaders to meet, bargain with and betray
    • Not yet: Companions with personalities, opinions and a loyalty arc
    • Not yet: Specialists to recruit: medic, mechanic, gunsmith, radio operator
    • Not yet: A journal of the people met
  16. M14A community of your ownPlanned

    M14Planned

    A community of your own

    From a base to a settlement

    • Not yet: Survivors who live at your base, each with a story and a skill
    • Not yet: Jobs they get on with, and runs to send them on
    • Not yet: Facilities: infirmary, kitchen, workshop, radio room, watchtowers
    • Not yet: Defences and sieges: walls, traps, alarms, floodlights
    • Not yet: Raids you lead on scav camps and faction depots
    • Not yet: Trade routes to other settlements
  17. M15More cityPlanned

    M15Planned

    More city

    Places to find and stories left behind

    • Not yet: New kinds of district
    • Not yet: Twenty more hero locations
    • Not yet: Many more building kinds with hand-authored interiors
    • Not yet: Stories left in every district: scenes, notes, photos, recordings
    • Not yet: A lore codex that fills as you find things
    • Not yet: Secret places: bunkers, stashes, rooftop hideouts
    • Not yet: The underground on foot
  18. M16What hunts youPlanned

    M16Planned

    What hunts you

    Threats that change as the city decays

    • Not yet: New infected strains as the Bloom advances, each with a counter
    • Not yet: Roaming bosses with lairs
    • Not yet: Human enemies with new tactics: snipers, road ambushes, traps, sieges
    • Not yet: Predators and packs that hunt by season
    • Not yet: The city as a threat: spreading fires, gas, floods, collapses
    • Not yet: Nights with their own dangers
  19. M17Every run differentPlanned

    M17Planned

    Every run different

    Sandbox, challenges and replay

    • Not yet: Sandbox settings for every major system
    • Not yet: Difficulty presets
    • Not yet: Challenge scenarios with their own starts and rules
    • Not yet: Achievements
    • Not yet: A daily seeded challenge on the leaderboard
    • Not yet: Run modifiers earned from past runs
    • Not yet: Achievements authored for Steam: icon, text, hidden flag, none that needs a chore
  20. M18The sound of the cityPlanned

    M18Planned

    The sound of the city

    Voices, score and broadcasts

    • Not yet: Voices for the people of the city
    • Not yet: A composed score for every zone and threat, in stems
    • Not yet: Broadcasts that carry the story: news, a DJ, emergency bulletins
    • Not yet: Ambience by district, season and time
    • Not yet: Foley for every action
    • Not yet: The mix pass carried into all of it
  21. M19Every PC, every playerPlanned

    M19Planned

    Every PC, every player

    Performance, options and reach

    • Not yet: Performance proven on a modest PC and a handheld
    • Not yet: Graphics quality tiers
    • Not yet: Loading and saving that never keep you waiting
    • Not yet: Every option a player expects, and an accessibility audit
    • Not yet: Translatable text and at least one translation
    • Not yet: Mod support for content
    • Not yet: Cloud saves through the account
    • Not yet: A shipped language set chosen from wishlist data, with a font that covers it
  22. M20Ready for strangersPlanned

    M20Planned

    Ready for strangers

    The first players from outside

    • Not yet: A small closed playtest group
    • Not yet: Watching new players and fixing what confuses them
    • Not yet: Balance from their sessions
    • Not yet: A bug bash
    • Not yet: Save safety across updates
    • Not yet: Known issues at zero for crashes and progress loss
    • Not yet: From 1.0, a save carries across patches
  23. M21Safe to play onlinePlanned

    M21Planned

    Safe to play online

    Nobody gets hacked by playing with someone else

    • Not yet: Every client value checked by the host or server; codecs fuzzed, hostile-client tests
    • Not yet: Accounts: sign-in rate limits and lockout, revocable sessions, slow password hash
    • Not yet: The Worker: validated input, body size caps, per-IP and per-account limits, two-factor staff, audit trail
    • Not yet: Servers and relays: scoped tokens, owner-only commands, bans that survive a restart
    • Not yet: Signed downloads and updates, every file checked before it runs, allowlisted hosts
    • Not yet: Leaderboards the server can check; a kill switch, a security contact and a true privacy page
    • Not yet: Its attacks re-run against the Steam transport, lobby and invite paths
  24. M22The Campaign, finishedPlanned

    M22Planned

    The Campaign, finished

    A story worth playing to the end

    • Not yet: A cutscene opening and closing every chapter, and one for the finale
    • Not yet: Scenes for everyone in co-op, skippable with a vote
    • Not yet: The story's people written through, with faces and voices in dialogue
    • Not yet: Every chapter's operation staged as set pieces, not only a gate to open
    • Not yet: Briefings, the journal and the Campaign map telling the story so far
    • Not yet: Music and ambience per chapter; every chapter's places dressed to the art bar
    • Not yet: Choices answered later in the story; the Campaign's known issues closed
  25. Part VI: released
  26. M23Ready for SteamPlanned

    M23Planned

    Ready for Steam

    The same game, through Steam's front door

    • Not yet: One SteamService that does nothing when Steam is absent; sign in with Steam linked to the game account, so ranks, crews and achievements carry over
    • Not yet: Steam networking and lobbies behind the transport seam: no port forwarding, invites and Join Game from the friends list, rich presence; M21's attacks re-run on the Steam transport
    • Not yet: Achievements mirrored to Steam with their icons; Steam Cloud for saves and settings with a clear rule when two PCs disagree
    • Not yet: Steam Input and Steam Deck: glyphs for every pad, a text keyboard, legible text at handheld size, a Deck-verified checklist
    • Not yet: Steam builds beside the launcher's own: beta and default branches, one game version
    • Not yet: Store compliance: the age ratings, the terms and the privacy text all true
    • Not yet: Expansion plumbing: DLC ownership checks (the host's pack opens its region for the session), entitlements for cosmetics
  27. M24A fair housePlanned

    M24Planned

    A fair house

    Reporting, moderation and the tools to run a server

    • Not yet: Report a player from the player list, the voice roster and a chat line, with a reason and the recent chat attached (voice is never recorded)
    • Not yet: Mute and block that follow the account across text, voice, trades and invites; a text filter for chat and names that each player sets
    • Not yet: Server roles: owner, admin, moderator, each with scoped commands, an in-game admin panel and a remote console; bans, allow lists and shared ban lists that survive a restart
    • Not yet: A staff review queue: reports triaged, warnings then mutes then bans, appeals, and an audit trail on M21's two-factor staff panel
    • Not yet: Stranger defaults: voice and text opt-in on public servers, a short code of conduct on first join, the reporter told the outcome
    • Not yet: Published rules and a report-to-action policy; suspicious scores and behaviour flagged by M21 reach the same queue
  28. M25The open cityPlanned

    M25Planned

    The open city

    Public servers anybody can join, and run

    • Not yet: Authority for strangers finished: packs, cash, trades, shops, crafting and cars owned by the server, proven with M21's hostile-client suite
    • Not yet: The load test: a bot client fills a server with fifty; budgets per survivor for CPU, bandwidth, voice and memory; the headless server slimmed from today's 2.2 GB
    • Not yet: Official servers by region that fill, start new ones when full and close when empty
    • Not yet: Community-hosted servers: the server as a download anyone can run, listed in the browser
    • Not yet: A persistent world's long life: the city's history page, optional eras with a Hall of Masters carried forward, an events calendar, backups and restores
    • Not yet: Joining in a minute: browser filters (region, mode, ping, rules), a queue when full, whole crews joining together; an operator dashboard for health, population and crashes
  29. M26The shop windowPlanned

    M26Planned

    The shop window

    A demo, a page and people who are waiting for it

    • Not yet: A demo: the first hour and Campaign Chapter 1 in solo and co-op, a save that carries into the full game, no launcher or sign-in, a quit survey
    • Not yet: The store page live as Coming Soon months ahead: capsule and key art in every size drawn from the game's own art, a trailer in the game's own style, a gameplay trailer, screenshots, tags
    • Not yet: Photo mode: free camera, time of day, weather and season, hide the HUD, the game's film finish, saved at 4K
    • Not yet: A press kit and creator keys: fact sheet, logos, GIFs, a key-request flow
    • Not yet: A community home with moderators from M24, plain-English patch notes, and this roadmap published from the same data as the in-game one
    • Not yet: The launch plan written down, and how support answers
    • Not yet: A playtest and wishlist funnel: demo drop-off fed into M20's balance work
  30. M27The 1.0 release candidatePlanned

    M27Planned

    The 1.0 release candidate

    The version worth calling 1.0

    • Not yet: Content and features frozen; polish-only releases
    • Not yet: Every route to the end played through clean
    • Not yet: The game's page, a trailer and screenshots
    • Not yet: A launch plan with a day-one patch process
    • Not yet: Credits
    • Not yet: WorldGenVersion and the save schema frozen for existing worlds at 1.0; later generator changes versioned so old worlds keep loading
    • Not yet: The gate run again in Co-op and on a server
  31. After 1.0: expansion packs
  32. Pack 1Dead WaterPlanned

    Expansion pack 1Planned

    Dead Water

    The bay is the last open road in Halden, and the tide decides when it opens.

    Where
    The Bay, south of the Port
    New
    Tides · Diving and salvage · Seafaring with crew stations · Sea A-Life
    With friends
    Crewed boats, dive buddies, one tide clock for the whole server, a harbourmaster board
    When
    About 5 months after 1.0
    • Not yet: The Bay: six islands, a drowned Old Harbour, a lighthouse and a wreck graveyard
    • Not yet: A tide clock that floods and uncovers the Old Harbour, the same for every survivor
    • Not yet: Diving: a dive suit, timed dives and salvage from drowned buildings and wrecks
    • Not yet: Sea-going boats with crew stations, fog, swell and storms
    • Not yet: Island posts, a sea trade route, wreckers and Cordon patrol boats
    • Not yet: The lighthouse beam that lights the sea lanes
    • Not yet: A side operation and new epilogues
  33. Pack 2Over the WallPlanned

    Expansion pack 2Planned

    Over the Wall

    Everyone outside wants to stay out. You need to get past them, and back.

    Where
    The Wire, outside the Cordon: the camp, the checkpoint town, the base
    New
    Crossing the Wire · Cover identity · Heists · Smuggling
    With friends
    Heist roles (driver, inside man, lookout, cracker); on servers smuggler crews compete for routes and the Cordon alert level is one value for everyone
    When
    About 9 months after 1.0
    • Not yet: The Wire: Camp Halden, Ashby Cross, Forward Base Kestrel and the rail yard, built from the city's seed
    • Not yet: Crossings: tunnels, fences, bribed gates and papers, each with its own risk
    • Not yet: Cover identity: papers, wristbands, uniforms and per-soldier suspicion
    • Not yet: Screening at checkpoints, and the ways around it
    • Not yet: Three heists with quiet, loud and bought routes
    • Not yet: Smuggling runs both ways, joined to the settlements' trade
    • Not yet: A side operation and new epilogues
  34. Pack 3Dead AirPlanned

    Expansion pack 3Planned

    Dead Air

    The last relief flight came down over the Core. Something on board is still worth dying for.

    Where
    The rooftops of the whole city and Halden Regional airfield
    New
    Helicopters · The roof layer · Airdrops · Winch and extraction
    With friends
    Pilot, door gunner and winch are separate seats; on servers one drop schedule everyone sees, and crews own (and can steal) helicopters
    When
    About 13 months after 1.0
    • Not yet: The roof layer across the city: ziplines, planks, ladders, rooftop camps and roof-only sites
    • Not yet: Two flyable helicopters with seats, noise, landing and a flight layer drawn above the roofs
    • Not yet: Halden Regional: the airfield, hangars and the control tower
    • Not yet: The airlift crash site in the Core
    • Not yet: Airdrops with one schedule per session, and the tower that calls more
    • Not yet: Winch rescues and extractions; Cordon air patrols
    • Not yet: A side operation and new epilogues
  35. Pack 4Below HaldenPlanned

    Expansion pack 4Planned

    Below Halden

    Light is the only road. Follow the trains down.

    Where
    The Undercity, three levels under the Core and the Point
    New
    Rail · Dark and light · A deep delve · Bad air and flooded levels
    With friends
    Two-person switches and split lanes, revive in the dark, trains that seat the crew, a boss that returns on a long cycle
    When
    About 17 months after 1.0
    • Not yet: The Undercity: three levels with fourteen sites and secrets
    • Not yet: Rail: trains, handcars, switches and powered stations
    • Not yet: The dark and the light kit: lamps, flares, breaker rooms
    • Not yet: A deep delve and its boss
    • Not yet: The last people down there, and their defences
    • Not yet: Bad air and flooded levels, with pumps
    • Not yet: The Side Operation "The Deep Line" and epilogues
  36. Pack 5Lights OnPlanned

    Expansion pack 5Planned

    Lights On

    Bring Halden back, one bridge and one block at a time.

    Where
    The Weir and the river crossings
    New
    Works with lasting payoffs · A construction kit · Haulage · The city responds
    With friends
    Shared works, progress credited per account, co-op crews split materials, defence and building
    When
    About 21 months after 1.0
    • Not yet: The Weir district and the river crossings
    • Not yet: The Works framework with twelve projects and lasting payoffs
    • Not yet: The construction kit
    • Not yet: Haulage: barges, helicopters, trains and trucks, with NPC haulers
    • Not yet: The city's response: settlers, tolls, sabotage and sieges
    • Not yet: A playable epilogue and a new way to finish
    • Not yet: Server community goals, credited per account

The road past 1.0 is a plan, and it will move as we learn from the people who play. This page is drawn from the same list as the roadmap inside the game's main menu.