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Week Ninety Four brings the new C0NT4CT device to Icarus, merging the Short Range Radio, Infrasonic Relay Device and Encrypted Satellite into a single device.

This is a big step towards our Hypatia update, where we’ll be adding Operations (missions you can complete from your Open World session) to both the Styx and Olympus maps so they can be activated from your Open World sessions, just like in our New Frontiers expansion.

We’ve also added a new pop up which will allow you to check your file state after each patch, which aims to reduce bugs or crashes caused by outdated and leftover files from Steam’s patching process.

Jump in and have a read.

Notable Improvements

• A checksum file check has been added which shows a message on the title screen if you have mods installed or your pak files from the patch are in a bad state. This will be helpful in figuring out if Steam’s patching process has accidentally corrupted the project...

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Icarus has always been a good-looking but deadly environment, but now it will kill you faster.

Working with our friends at NVIDIA we have upgraded Icarus to support DLSS 3.0. The result was a 2.6X on average increase in performance enabling max setting, ray-traced gameplay on many GeForce RTX 40 Series systems.

If you are running Icarus in Direct X 12 mode and have a GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU, turn on Frame Generation in the Graphics Settings to take advantage of the improved frame rate.



Benchmarking in NVIDIA’s labs found a that DLSS 3 boosted Icarus’ performance by 2.6X on average.

When we were developing ICARUS we reached out to many publishers, manufacturers, and platform owners but were unable to really get any traction with nearly everyone... except NVIDIA.

Despite being a massi...

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This weeks update we release the work we have been doing towards performance improvements. We have been working on these improvements for some time, and they represent a major change in how a number of assets and parts of the map are loaded. Most specifically these are targeted to address hitching and stutters caused by level streaming and asset loading when moving across the ma, but in many cases they also give modest general FPS improvements as well.

We’ve done a big write up to explain the changes we’ve made and our logic for it also, to give you an idea of the background work that’s going in to improving the experience for all players as we add more content to the game in the future.

This week also brings the long awaited wind power system, with new wind turbines giving you a third sustainable power source, and a sneak peek at our next improvement to the electricity system, batteries.

We’ve also got an update on Hypatia, our next big free update, and ev... Read more

Icarus: New Frontiers, the first expansion of the Icarus experience, has landed. It brings with it a new map, with all new biomes, mutated alien creatures, narrative missions (known as Operations) that further unveil the story and can are integrated into your Open World game, craftables, exotics, and more.



New Frontiers Expansion

Icarus: First Cohort dropped prospectors into safe Earth-like terraformed zones. Icarus: New Frontiers will take you deep into new regions of Icarus where alien creatures and habitats survived but were altered by the terraforming process.

... Read more

Week 89 is here and - with only one week until New Frontiers - we’ve decided to do a week of focusing on Quality of Life improvements and introducing some new benches that allow for all the new content to come next week.

A bunch of QoL improvements recommended by our community have been added, including new keybinds and adjustments to blueprints.

On top of this, we’ve added three new benches - a Tier 3 Masonry Bench, a Tier 3 Forge and a Tier 4 Foundry (which are the higher tier versions of the Tier 2 Anvil).

These provide a more streamlined progression for the items previously on the lower tier variations of these benches, and allow for simpler consolidation to save floor space as you progress through the levels.

Finally, the New Frontiers Gameplay Trailer premieres this weekend on YouTube, and you can sign up to watch with us at the link below.

... Read more

Week Eighty Eight is here and with the New Frontiers expansion only two weeks away we have a lot to talk about.

The feature of the week is the revamped farming system, following on from our community discussion a couple of weeks ago. This changes how you interact with crop plots, introduces a more robust early-game farming system and adds five new items to support these changes.

We’re also calling for feedback on a proposed ‘arachnophobia mode’, so if you are someone who suffers from this (or know someone who does), we want to hear your thoughts on our proposed ideas in the comments.

Finally, if you haven’t already heard, ‘The Seeker’ - the newest installment in our live action documentary series - premieres this weekend on YouTube so go sign up today.



Video Premiere: The Seeker

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Week Eighty Seven brings a new set of interior decorations to Icarus - rugs. Six variations have been included, with five animals to hunt down to gather the required materials. We’ve also just announced the upcoming premiere of the newest live action documentary in the Icarus saga ‘The Seeker’. You can sign up for the YouTube premiere below. Finally, for those who missed last week's announcement, you can read up on our upcoming expansion, New Frontiers, now only three weeks away.

Video Premier: The Seeker

‘The Seeker’ is the latest installment in our live action documentaries, and it’s premiering on YouTube on Saturday August 12th at 6pm EDT. There might even be an old friend, thought lost to Icarus, making an appearance…

Want to refresh your memory on the story so... Read more

Week Eighty Six is here, and adds two new shields to Icarus for you to craft and wear.

On top of adding Bone and Steel Heater Shields, we’ve added the ability to equip these on your back in the utility (G) slot - giving you protection against unexpected attacks from behind and a new way to accessorize.

Finally, this morning we announced our biggest news since launch - the upcoming release of our first major expansion, Icarus: New Frontiers. Have a look at all the details in the links below.

New Frontiers
If you missed it earlier - we have announced the launch date of our first major expansion - Icarus: New Frontiers! Wishlist now to stay up to date with the latest news.

... Read more

Our first major expansion for Icarus is coming. Icarus: New Frontiers launches August 24th and brings with it a new map, with all new biomes, mutated alien creatures, narrative missions, craftables, exotics, and more.

Icarus' First Cohort was dropped into safe Earth-like terraformed zones. Icarus: New Frontiers will take you deep into new regions of Icarus where alien creatures and habitats survived but were altered by the terraforming process - such as searingly hot volcanic regions, murky swamplands and eerie alien grasslands.

New technology also means you’ll be able to stay on the planet in Open World mode for consecutive Missions, so you better get comfortable with your new home away from home.

Jump in and have a read of all the details of what’s to come.



Icarus: New Frontiers
New Frontiers comes packed with new content. ... Read more

Week Eighty Five brings a new mission for the fishers and anglers amongst you. You’ve been tasked to go catch some endemic species to the oasis, so get your rods and go cast your line.

We’ve also got an update on Hypatia and our ongoing work into the new mission system and performance elements.

Finally, we’ve got a sneak peek at a future patch for crop plots, and would love your thoughts on our proposed changes.

Hop in and have a read.



New Mission: OASIS: Angler
This week's mission is for the fishers and anglers among you. You’re tasked with building a fishing hut and catching some species endemic to the oasis of the desert biomes of Styx. Your briefing is as follows:

// OPERATOR: SINOTAI
// BIOME: OASIS, Styx map
// BACKGROUND: A VIP is requesting to have a taste of what Styx has to of... Read more

Week Eighty Four is here, and brings our second batch of Carved Wood Decorations to Icarus, with six new items to craft.

We’ve also updated and improved photo mode, tweaking and improving the ranges of different settings and the control players have in setting specific parameters to get the perfect shot.

You may have noticed we’ve published this week’s update one day early. In New Zealand, where RocketWerkz is based, we have a public holiday this Friday to celebrate Matariki, the Māori New Year. Enjoy this week’s update while our team enjoy our holiday weekend.



Carved Wood Decorations
We’ve added a second batch of Carved Wood Decorations this week, adding six new items to the set for you to craft and decorate your base with.

Included are three tables - a Round Table, a Six-Seater Dining Table, and a Ten-Seater Dining Tab... Read more

Week Eighty Three features two revamps of existing in-game systems, alongside the addition of a new type of ammo for firearms.

Armor Piercing Ammo has been added, and we’ve paired this with an overhaul of the Hardened Point Damage System, providing a more scalable and effective process for calculating the impact of stats when targeting different Hard Points on different creatures.

The Orbital Workshop has also received a UI pass, aiming to make it easier to navigate to make room for new items in the future.

Jump in and have a read.



Armor Piercing Ammo
This week we’re adding a new ammo variation, Armor Piercing. This will be available for firearms, while crossbows already have this perk innately.

Armor Piercing Bullets for firearms come with the Hardened Point Penetration stat, essentially bypassing the hardened ... Read more

Week Eighty One brings a refresh and rebalance of our blueprint tree, and improvements to Tier 3 and 4 recipes.

As the game has evolved, certain items have either become more valuable, or declined in their value, so we’ve shuffled where they’re unlocked and their recipe costs to make them more balanced in the current state of the game.

We’ve also fixed a couple of long-standing bugs and an update on Styx.

Jump in and have a read.



QoL & Fixes
The blueprint tree has received a complete rework and shuffle, with our intention to better group together related items and even adjust some tiers, to reflect their value to the game at this stage of its lifecycle.

This re-arrange will mean that certain pathways and familiarity will be lost, so it’s worth spending a couple of minutes having a look at the new design to acclima... Read more

Week Eighty is here and we’re introducing our newest items, the Creature Deterrents.

This is a creature spawn blocker, which allows you to create a radius of safety where creatures won’t roam, engage or spawn while you complete your tasks or try catch some needed rest.

We’ve also had a breakthrough on some of our most rare crashes thanks to the reporting done by you, the players, using our in-game reporting tool.

Finally, we’ve got some great videos of our team talking about Icarus' development with some content creators recently, so check those out.



Creature Spawn Blockers
We’ve added a new item to the game called a ‘Creature Deterrent’ with Tier 2, 3 and 4 variations.

When placed and connected to a power source (required for the higher tier versions), these will stop creatures spawning within that radius.
... Read more

Welcome to Week Seventy Nine.

Following on from the incredibly successful launch of Galileo last week, we’re following it up with a bunch of bug fixes and UI improvements that slipped through the cracks or were picked up on by players as they tested out the new features.

We also released our Interior Decorations DLC last week, a small package of mineral lamps and paintings for players who want to support our development and throw an extra few dollars our way.

Finally, we’ve got an update on the next named update and what to expect from that, along with progress on our first expansion New Frontiers.

Hop in and have a read.



Galileo Fixes
Following on from our Galileo update last week, we’re polishing up a few gameplay and UI bugs that slipped through the cracks or popped up as players checked out the new content.... Read more

Galileo is finally here.

Our first named update in our new cadence brings the long-awaited fishing system, with 53 species, 3 rods, 23 lures and so much more. Catch, record, display and fillet a range of marine life, with their own mini-game and dedicated fishing book.

The Bestiary is your one-stop-shop guide to all of Icarus’ fauna, giving unique lore, perks, unlocks and advantages as you hunt, kill, skin and display your conquests.

Finally, Steam Achievements, Trading Cards, Badges, Backgrounds and Emoticons have all been added for you to complete, trade, unlock and display on your Steam profiles.

We’ve also made balance changes to address all this new content, and included a small decorative DLC for people who wish to decorate their base with mineral lamps or artwork, and support our con... Read more

Week Seventy Seven is here, and it’s a big one.

We’ve got a ton of performance improvements, with weeks of the team's hard work on lighting, shadows, UI, meshes, and more to share.

Based on your community feedback, we also have a bunch of early-game QoL improvements, increases to talent points and new creatures in Olympus and Styx.

Finally, we’ve dropped a video explaining the new features in the big upcoming Galileo patch plus a sneaky release date announcement for those who reach the bottom of this blog.

Jump in and have a read.



Performance - Lighting and Shadows
Light Shadows

Our performance team has been actively working on a few pain points we identified for AMD GPUs and lower-end nVidia GPUs caused by point/spot light shadows. This week, we’re bringing you some fixes that we hope will address ... Read more

Week Seventy Six is here and with it comes a bunch of new home decor options that expand our Carved Wood Decorations set with new furnishings to adorn your base.

We also go deeper into the upcoming features of Galileo such as Fishing, as we move into closed beta testing. Jump in and have a read.



Carved Wood Decorations
We’re adding to our existing home decor options, by adding six new carved wood pieces with a new bed, wardrobe, narrow wardrobe, nightstand, display cabinet and dresser.

For our Open World base building aficionados, these are the first of a range of new options to style your base, your way. They provide more bespoke personalization, but don’t add any new gameplay features.

These are craftable on the carpentry bench, and most can be found by using the R key to look for variations on the base item.

... Read more

Week Seventy Five brings both a new mission, ENCROACHMENT: Extermination, and various bug fixes

This new mission will have you gathering information and valuable extermination data on various creatures inhabiting Styx.

We also have an update about Galileo. We have now entered the internal testing phase and are planning to release a closed public test build soon. We are looking forward to receiving feedback from players before launch.

Jump in and have a read.



ENCROACHMENT: Extermination
ENCROACHMENT: Extermination is a new mission on the Styx map where players have to establish a foothold and hunt various targets as they progress through the mission.

Players will need to build across most of the central Styx region, and will receive additional targets to hunt as they expand their reach across the map. Here’s your Mi... Read more

Week Seventy Four brings both a new dynamic mission, SMPL3: Lost, and fixes to the dynamic mission system to clean up some errors that have affected players over the last couple of weeks.

This new quest will have you searching for an abandoned prospector base, a new variation of a dynamic mission we haven’t done before.

We also give an update on Galileo as we move into the internal testing phase, and discuss our upcoming closed public test build for players to give us feedback before launch.

Jump in and have a read.



SMPL3: Lost
Dynamic Missions have been incredibly popular since we introduced them in ... Read more