Greetings, Hunters!

First off, we would like to thank everyone who joined us for the World Premiere Playtest after our official announcement at The Game Awards. Showcasing our CG teaser trailer was a big moment for us—and yes, the word "teaser" means that there will be more of this trailer in the future! We greatly appreciate the time that you took to play the game and the vast amounts of feedback that you shared with us in the survey, on Discord, as well as Reddit and Steam! We’re still adapting to the new reality where our NDA is lifted, and it was great to see comments, livestreams, and excitement on so many platforms.

Rest assured, we didn’t spend the holidays just kicking back; our team has been sorting through every comment and suggestion to help guide what’s coming next. For those of you that are new to Steel Hunters, this article is one we traditionally publish after every update to ensure that communication goes both ways and that you know you’re being heard. So without further ado, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of your feedback!

Glitches in the Matrix

We’re aware that many of you encountered technical issues—from bugs and crashes to frame drops—during the World Premiere Playtest. While we were able to address a nasty out-of-memory crash with a hotfix, we acknowledge that the overall stability was not up to our standards.

The silver lining is that thanks to the huge amount of data and bug reports you all sent in, we have a solid understanding of the issues and a clear plan to tackle them. While you won’t see all of these resolved in the next version, we’re putting a lot of focus on stability and especially GPU and CPU performance over the coming updates. Please keep letting us know whenever you experience issues, because the only good bug—is a dead bug.

Embrace the Pace

Some of you have mentioned that movement can feel a bit sluggish, especially if you're new to the game. While we acknowledge your feedback, it's important to note that Steel Hunters is designed to be a slower-paced, tactical experience. Our mechs are huge, weighing around 60 tons and standing about 8 meters tall, so they naturally have some momentum that we want to reflect.

That being said, we're currently testing ways to improve the fluidity with better transitions between different animation states, but this will take some time as we need to test and validate the changes. In the meantime, we're experimenting with reducing cooldowns for dash and jump charges, which you’ll already see in the next version (0.39.1). We hope that this will make traversal a bit easier and address some of your feedback about the difficulty of clearing ledges when running out of charges. Let us know what you think of this change after the next Playtest!

Another change we’re testing for a future version is removing the "Hold E" mechanic for basic items like Energy or low-level Cores to speed up looting. We’ll still keep the delay for high-impact items, ensuring they can’t be scooped up too quickly in the heat of battle.

Pv–What?

Another interesting development was that we received a significant number of comments regarding having more PvE content in the game, especially from new players. This ranged from desires for a full narrative PvE campaigns, to ideas of epic boss-fights. While Steel Hunters is primarily a PvP game, we are working on improving the PvE experience in our existing Skirmish mode by enhancing AI behavior, which will also come in handy in case your squad-partner ever suffers a loss of internet connection and has to be replaced by an AI partner. We have some long-term ideas for more PvE content in addition to adding variety to our Drones and greatly appreciate your suggestions, but for the time being, our main focus will remain on delivering an exciting PvP experience.

Starfall Harvest: A Work in Progress

Our new main game mode, Starfall Harvest, made its debut in this latest test—marking the first time it has been rolled out for a large-scale trial. Built from early Alpha feedback, the goal was to spice up the mid-game with more replayability and player agency. We’ll admit, it wasn’t without its rough edges. Apart from some missing features like voice lines for pinging Starfall Towers, we also heard that the mode was overwhelming for some new players, which we want to address.

For the next update, we’ll temporarily introduce a more streamlined Starfall Harvest, with which we hope to address the main feedback points. Based on how this test goes, we’ll keep making changes to Starfall Harvest and iterate until we find the sweet spot between accessibility, complexity, and replayability. 0.39.1 will see fewer Tower types, as well as the below changes to address the feedback on pacing and intensity. While this may feel like an extreme change, this is part of our iteration process and will help us understand what parts of the experience to focus on for more changes.

Three Key Learnings from Feedback

1.Early-Game Predictability
Previously, only three Towers spawned for six teams, forcing immediate PvP encounters. While that delivered early excitement, it made the initial game phase predictable and led to a significant number of early knockouts, which made the mid-game less exciting. To address this, the changed mode will feature six initial loot Towers. This should give you more choice in how to approach the early game and make the first PvP encounter a possibility—not a necessity.

2. Mid-Game Lulls
With so many teams already knocked out early, the mid-game often felt empty. Two consecutive Tower-drop phases drew things out, and matches ended before the Extraction showdown could even begin. In the streamlined mode we’re shortening the mid-game and reducing it to a single Tower wave, which will spawn closer to the final Extraction Zone. Our hope is that the action will stay focused and lead to more late-game encounters.

3. Endgame Showdowns
The final fight over the Extraction Zone is meant to be the high point, where leveled-up teams clash for victory. By reworking the early and mid-game phases, we aim to ensure more squads make it to this climactic ending.

Experimenting With Squad Sizes and Game Modes

We’ve seen many comments asking for different squad sizes, and while it’s something we’re open to exploring down the line, our immediate focus is perfecting the duo experience. Keeping teams at two players preserves the tactical nature of each match, allowing for tight collaboration without overcomplicating the overall flow. Going bigger—whether that’s three, four, or more—introduces extra complexities; would impact matchmaking speeds; and would drastically change the time-to-kill for the game. These are all aspects that we need to consider thoughtfully to maintain a smooth, balanced experience.

You also mentioned a desire for larger maps with more teams, which is certainly an exciting possibility. However, we’re cautious about extending match lengths beyond that sweet spot, and we’re aware that bigger maps come with heavier technical demands. Rest assured, we’re not closing the door on this idea; we just want to make sure we’re ready to deliver on it without compromising performance or pacing before we approach it. In the meantime, we’re working on several more maps that will provide new environments to battle in—stay tuned for more on those later!

And new ways to play are definitely on the horizon: we’re actively working on a ranked experience. We hope this will provide fresh challenges and let you put your skills to the test against the fiercest competition out there.

Enroll Here for Hunt 101

We know starting off on the right foot is crucial, so we’re revamping our tutorial for the next version—complete with "Hunter Training" (to teach you how to use your Hunter) and the new, optional "Battle Training" (to teach you the fundamentals of the game mode). This improved intro will include more narrative elements, walk you through core gameplay features, and highlight the importance of teamwork by having you pair up with an AI-controlled Trenchwalker right from the start. While we were of course grateful to see your feedback on the old tutorial, we began work on these changes before the latest Playtest, building on earlier Alpha testing to ensure smoother onboarding. The new tutorial also takes place on a freshly designed map—an old highway—providing a more natural environment that guides you step by step while immersing you in the Steel Hunters world.

A clear example of your feedback shaping the game is our decision to unlock squad formation earlier. During testing, we received many questions about playing with friends—even though the feature was in place, it was locked behind finishing the onboarding process. While learning the basics is important, it also delayed your ability to jump into co-op action right from the start. We’ve now removed this barrier for forming squads, letting you squad up as soon as you have completed the tutorial.

!! Please note that as we’re completely changing our onboarding journey, we’ll need to ask for YOUR help testing it and as such, will need to wipe progress from the World Premiere version—hopefully for the last time before Open Beta!

A Balancing Act

On the Hunter balance front, things are looking relatively stable. We appreciate all the feedback you’ve sent our way—especially concerning a few standout issues. In the short term, expect minor stat tweaks rather than sweeping overhauls. For instance, we’re planning to tone down Ursus and take a close look at Heartbreaker’s loadout while giving Trenchwalker and Razorside a bit more love (looking at you, ammo regeneration). Our designers have more ideas on the table, but we’re holding off on any major shake-ups for now. This way, we can make sure the overall gameplay experience stays balanced without risking major disruptions for you. Please note that these changes will be introduced in version 0.40 to make sure we have time to test them thoroughly.

However, a LARGE balance change is coming in update 0.39 for our “8th” Hunter: Colossus. Formerly, he dominated early matches with high durability and damage, but he quickly fell behind once other Hunters powered up. On top of that, his single-weapon focus felt limited compared to the more versatile Hunters, leading to overly simplistic gameplay. The new-and-improved Colossus now wields a repeating rocket launcher, can throw (and sometimes retrieve) his spear, and has a shield-recharge ability for added survivability. To keep things balanced, though, there’s one catch: if you’re destroyed while using Colossus, you’ll respawn at just 25% structure points and no shields, making it vital to pick your battles wisely.

Another topic close to this is matchmaking, which has significant impact on balance when it matches up Hunters of similar levels. Our main goal is to reduce queue times and improve overall match quality. We’re making this a priority in the upcoming versions and look forward to hearing your feedback on what you’ll see in-game.

Refining the View

We also heard concerns about the UI sometimes becoming overwhelming and cluttered in the heat of battle when many different things happen at once. To address this, we’re planning a new, cleaner design for future versions. For 0.39.1 we have already reduced some of the clutter caused by the battle mission display based on your feedback! We want every element on your screen to feel intuitive, helping you focus on the action rather than sifting through extraneous details. You can see our work-in-progress approach in the image below.

Closing Thoughts & What’s Next

We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you for sharing your insights and staying involved. Your feedback is as ever a vital part of shaping Steel Hunters, and we hope you’ll continue letting us know what works, what doesn’t, and what you would like to see next.

We’ve got more testing on the horizon, starting with an Alpha Weekend where we’ll dig into these changes and stomp out as many bugs as we can. For those who joined us during the World Premiere, we appreciate your patience while we iron out the wrinkles in the version with our Alpha testers. Afterward, keep an eye out for a Beta Weekend featuring an exclusive reward for all participants—details will land on Discord, email, our website, and Steam news soon™.

With thanks,

MrConway

Head of Player Interactions