The end of the world is here! Emerging from the devastation of a global meteor strike, aliens swarm the landscape and ravage the planet. Everyday people must stand together and fight back with a wide variety of weapons, supplies, and defenses as they battle through the towns and wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.

Inspired by classic shooters like Left for Dead, Earthfall players employ team-based tactics to fortify holdouts and complete objectives under unrelenting attacks from alien hordes. Utilizing a wide variety of weapons and supplies like barricades, turrets, 3D printers, players must use team-based tactics and defenses while exploring the towns and wildernesses of the Pacific Northwest.

After being dark for a while, we are now ready to start showing you what we have been working as we get closer to the final release. Over the last couple months, we have touched almost everything in the entire game to improve stability and improve the performance! On top of touching nearly everything in the game, we have added tons of new content that you get to see for the first time!

New Level

We are excited to show you one of the levels from the second campaign of Earthfall, The Diversion. Take the fight to the aliens as you explore an abandoned hydroelectric dam in the Pacific Northwest.

New Enemies

We wanted to add more variety to the enemies we have in the game, and so we added a new boss, a new special and variants on the drones.

First up we have a brand new enemy boss, the Blackout. The Blackout can be easily identified by its eight tentacles whipping around as it floats around defying gravity. While not as big and loud as the Beast, it does have an energy shield surrounding it to protect it from attacks and allowing it to move around the play space at laser like speeds.

The behavior of the aliens changes all the time in Earthfall, but now they can become even more bloodthirsty when in the proximity of an Enrager, a new enemy special. This floating meat blob projects a visible effect that makes all aliens instantly seek and attack any nearby players. If you see an Enrager quickly attack it before you are overwhelmed by stronger, faster and angrier enemies.

Last we wanted to add more variety to the drones, and we have added a new Spitter class. This new drone has a powerful distance attack as they vomit deadly acid at you.

Performance Improvements

One area we have been working on is improving our performance in every aspect of Earthfall. We touched almost everything in the entire game the last couple months working on streamlining and optimizing the game. While most players will see a boost in speed and performance and detail, the area that has improved the greatest is the stability of the performance. All players should see a much more consistent performance throughout all the levels.

New Interface

We have an entirely new menu system! The old menu system was built very early in the project, and we wanted to explore some new areas especially as we bring Earthfall to other platforms. Make sure you plug in a controller and give it a shot!

Future Updates

Earthfall is still in Early Access, and we are aware there are going to be issues. Our goal is to have more consistent releases before we have our final release, so don't be surprised if there are hotfixes and further updates over the next couple months. With each of these updates, we need your help and feedback! Tell us what you think about The Diversion, Blackout, the new weapons, the interface and anything else in the game! We are always reading your posts on the Official Earthfall Forums[ and Earthfall Discussions here on Steam. For all the latest updates follow @EarthfallGame on Twitter and Like Earthfall on Facebook!

We are excited to pull the curtain back and show you what we have been working on and can’t wait to hear your feedback! Thanks from all of us at Holospark for your continued support!

Read the entire changes for Earthfall version 19889!

New Enemies!

Added a new boss, Blackout.
Added a new enemy special, Enrager.
Added a new enemy drone type, Spitter.

New Weapons!

Added new weapons – the Arc Grenade and the Valkyrie. These are not available in all levels because of the story.
We’ve removed grenades from your weapon rotation. Use G to throw a grenade.
You no longer lose your primary weapon when you pick up special weapon including Harbinger, Reaper, or Valkyrie.

New Buildables!

Auto-Turret: Place it and, when it detects oncoming enemies, it fires at them in a 90-degree arc.
Fire Fence: Place a fence, add a propane tank, and wait for enemies to approach. Boom!
Arc Fence: Place a fence, add an arc grenade, and wait for enemies to approach. Zzzt!

Improved performance!

We have touched EVERYTHING – characters, aliens, buildings, vehicles, weapons, visual FX, sounds, the skies above, the ground below, trees and flowers and chirping birds, and even the shell casings on bullets. We’ve updated the code for EVERYTHING – loading levels, spawning, walking, running, jumping, climbing, falling, picking things up, putting things down, dying, and even breathing. Most things look and/or sound better. Some things may still be in process. But pretty much everything performs better.

New Levels!

We’re only releasing one new level in this build: The Diversion – the middle level in Campaign 2.

We are so excited to get your feedback on these and all of the changes! Join us here in the forums and let us know what you think!

Known issues

• We are wiping your config files with this update. If you had custom settings or keybindings.
• Weapon LODs for low and medium are broken.
• You might have to double-click on some buttons. This includes the buttons when returning to the lobby after a game, accepting an invitation, and others. So, if you click a button and it doesn’t do anything, try double-clicking it.
• Sometimes, when you open the Chat wheel, you might not have a cursor. Click the left mouse button to get it back.
• It can look like your friends are in a Private game when, in reality, what they are is in a public game that you’re just not allowed into right this second. You may see this when they’re in the final holdout of a level, for example. We’re planning to update the wording to clarify the situation.
• Editing a lobby after a game can result in more changes than you intended. (E.g. Difficulty might get reset even though you didn’t change it.) Review all your settings before your next game.
• You may also see a friend is in a joinable game but you can’t join. That’s likely because their game is full and your friends list didn’t update correctly. Keep trying.
• If you select which character you want to be too quickly, you might crash. Just chill a second.
• There’s no star icon to indicate who is the host when you’re a client in a lobby.
• Gamepad settings don’t save. You have to reset them each time you play.
• The new auto-turret has trouble aiming low enough to hit Threshers.
• Guns have graphical problems on Low video settings.
• Valkyrie plasma bolts are emitted from below the gun, for all players except the host. We’re still polishing this weapon and its effects.
• Blackout music may persist after the Blackout is killed.
• Enragers don’t ever look like they’re on fire. That doesn’t mean they’re not on fire – we just need to hook up the effect.
• Dead drones may launch out of the world when shot with some guns.
• The sound in our logo video is choppy. You can click through those opening videos (Unreal, Holospark, FMOD).
• Some doors don’t close all the way in The Diversion.

There are many, MANY other changes and fixes also! Here’s a partial list:

UI

• Revamped the Main Menu, Lobby, and more.
• Removed the ability to navigate menus with a keyboard in most cases – use your mouse.
• Added a silhouette to the lobby when you don’t have a specific character selected.
• Added an outline to printers and health stations when you’re close. Hopefully, this will make them more discoverable to new players. They’re outlined in red when off, green when on, and yellow when in use.
• Moved the notification of special kills (e.g. “Danny killed the Sapper”) to the chat feed to declutter your screen.
• Changed the way we display text in preparation for localization.
• Made some other UI updates such as showing 16 characters of long names if needed.

Controllers Support

• Updated Controller mappings and how look works.
• Fixed a bug where “look invert” applied to the chat wheel when it shouldn’t.
• Added Aim Assist at medium range when you use controllers. It turns off when you ADS.
• We did LOTS of tuning also.

Matchmaking / Multiplayer Gameplay

• There was a bug where, if you chose one character to play and then changed your mind and chose a different character, both of those would be unavailable to other players in that lobby. For example, you chose Maya and then decided, “no, I want Jonas.” At that point, your friend couldn’t choose Maya or Jonas. Fixed.
• Decreased the refresh on the Friends List to improve performance.
• Fixed a bug where, if you used Quick Play and didn’t find a game, you could end up in an invalid lobby.
• Sometimes, looking for a friend to play with, you’d see they were in some weird map name that didn’t exist. Fixed.
• If you join a game in progress, you should not end up replacing an unconscious AI if there are healthier ones available.
• Fixed a crash that could occur if you searched for a game and failed to find one.
• Fixed a crash that could occur on rare occasions when you landed in a lobby.

General Gameplay

• Smoothed out the follow camera for laggy players a bit.
• Added new achievements.
• Fixed a bug where both the host and a client were down and both had spectator camera on the same conscious player. One player trying to control the camera in that situation would screw up the camera for the other player.
• Fixed a bug where, if you were spectating a player far from you, you still saw outlines for interactive objects near you. Like, you don’t need to see the outline for the printer and health station if you’re in the service station but spectating another player in the junk yard.
• Added camera shake in certain situations like jumping, falling, having a Beast stomping around, and gun recoil. AKs now have camera shake in ADS mode as they should.
• Added sound when you channel.
• Fixed a bug where you wouldn’t fall if you walked off a ledge while crouched.
• It was possible to seem like you’d been revived – you’re standing up, you’ve got full health – but you couldn’t actually do anything because part of you thought the revive wasn’t finished. Fixed.
• Fixed issue when you would appear to have died but you didn’t actually die.

Weapons

• We now show hit indicators even when you’re not using ADS.
• Fixed bugs where you’d stab yourself with your melee weapon while looking up or down.
• Added friendly-fire callouts when someone hits you with a melee weapon.
• Fixed a bug where hitting another character with a melee weapon caused them to spark instead of bleed.
• Changed the name of the combat axe to “Fire Axe.” Added “found” call-outs for buildables and melee weapons.
• Fixed a bug where your weapon would disappear but you could still fire it.
• Fixed a bug where you ended up without a last stand pistol if you got unpinned and incapacitated at the same time (e.g. you were injured by friendly fire when your ally killed the Whiplash that had you).
• Tweaked what happens when you pick up a weapon of the same sort you already have. It used to be that weapon would disappear and you’d have full ammo. Now, you basically refill your ammo with the weapon on the ground. (E.g. Your MP5 is down to 35 ammo and you find a new one and pick it up. You now have full ammo and the one on the ground is still there and has 35 bullets left.)
• You can no longer pick up a primary weapon if you have a full weapon of the same kind nor can you pick up a secondary weapon if you’re already dual-wielding that same type.
• Tuned pistol ranges and ADS.
• Decreased firing sounds when you’re ADS a touch. Also tweaked 3rd person weapon sounds.
• Dual pistols now have a reticle.
• Tuned how many gibs result when you damage enemies with each weapon.
• Tuned recoil on the AKs, CVA, EF18, Harbinger, and MP5.
• Fixed some animation issues with the Harbinger.
• Tweaked the Berg so that it animates better when reloading.
• Improved the look of the screen on the CVA.
• Improved the Glintec scope.
• Increased the damage the Reaper does and updated its ammo screen.
• Changed the firing sound of some weapons to alert you when you’re low on ammo.
• Updated the turret model and made it so you can no longer jump on the turret before it’s done deploying.
• Improved the sounds of a turret being deployed, damaged, and destroyed.
• Fixed a bug that made you safe from Threshers and Whiplashes when on a turret.
• Fixed a bug where you’d be on a turret and the damage arc would say there were enemies on one side when they were actually on the other side of you.
• Fixed a bug where some full-screen FX (like being on fire) didn’t show up while you were on a turret. You need to know these things and the effect is helpful to see.
• Improved throw grenade animations.
• Added a trail to grenades to make it easier to see where they went.
• Fixed a bug where quick-throwing a grenade during last stand would fire your pistol.
• Landmines are now much more likely to be detonated by aliens than by shooting them or such.
• You no longer receive friendly fire when pinned by a Thresher.
• Fixed a bug where an AI exploding barrels did regular damage to you instead of friendly fire damage.
• If you were a client (not host) and you threw a propane tank and continued to hold down the throw button, you’d immediately fire at it and explode the tank in your face.
• We no longer let you fire that soon after throwing.
• Tweaked (mostly decreased) the damage that fire does.
• Improved the look of fire in many situations.

Other Usable Items

• Tuned how much health med kits and stimshots give.
• Changed the hint for stimshots to say “stimshot” instead of “fastpatch.”
• Added a more high-tech effect when you’re using medkits and health stations and improved the look of the medkit.
• Stimshots make you reload and channel faster now.
• You could run out of stamina while under the influence of a stimshot. That shouldn’t be.
• You can now place fences on fence debris. (Previously, a fence would get destroyed and you’d have to wait for the debris to decay before you could put up another fence.)
• Added sounds when fences are getting damaged.
• Fixed a bug where, if someone printed a weapon before you joined the game, you wouldn’t see it there on the printer when you joined.

Character Updates

• Tweaked the damage that falling does.
• We tweaked the scale of the character bodies and improved first- and third-person animations for almost everything including equipping weapons, swinging melee weapons, reloading, and more.
• Improved the look of everyone’s hands from first person view.
• We’ve improved the look of everyone in general while making the models more performant.
• Improved player lighting.
• Changed where the flashlight is so holdables (propane tanks, etc.) are less likely to block it.
• Added footstep sounds for climbing a ladder. Sadly, they don’t always stop when you stop climbing. We’re working on that.
• Fixed a bug with breakable doors that could cause you to get stuck in the middle of one.
• Fixed a bug where shooting Danny’s backpack would cause a blood spurt.

General AI

• You (and your companions) no longer complain about friendly fire if you’re pinned.
• Added variety to your “I’m hurt” call-outs in order to prevent you from repeating the same one over and over while you wait for help.
• We’ve given you the ability to specify how helpful the AIs are separate from how difficult the level is.
• Fixed a bug where AIs not being able to reach you would perf.

AI Companions

• Can no longer “hear” alien footsteps that are really far away so aliens can now get closer before being noticed. In this way, they’re more on par with humans.
• Can once again dual wield under certain circumstances (basically, when they won’t be preventing a player from doing so).
• Are pickier about when they switch to secondary weapons.
• Have a somewhat randomized stack rank of primary weapon preferences.
• Can now switch weapons and reload on the move.
• Have had their fire rate nerfed. They were able to fire way faster than humans. We decreased their rate more for Overwhelming difficulty than for Easy.
• Have an increased ability to evade ranged attacks (like Beast fireballs).
• They’ve also had their ability to shove Threshers nerfed. They were way better at it than humans.
• Are smarter about target acquisition and about moving around in order to better access hard-to-reach targets. Also, if they do not have their own target, they will check to see if any of their allies are shooting at something they can shoot at. If they find something, they will turn to shoot at it.
• Look around more while moving, particularly if there’s a special or boss around. They will also move around more to avoid damage, staying closer to the fight when it’s just drones but with a larger range in a boss fight.
• Should now put fewer bullets into dead aliens. And should not try to put bullets into invulnerable targets.
• Have an improved ability to flee Sapper clouds and avoid hazards in general.
• Are smarter and faster about figuring out whether they can reach their goal before heading for their goal, fixing some issues where they’d sometimes just pace back and forth, accomplishing nothing.
• Now follow you more intelligently (including teleporting more efficiently, if needed) and are more likely to face probable enemy incursion points when they get to you (instead of facing the wall behind you like idiots).
• Will now jump down instead of climbing down a ladder in cases where the jump won’t cause damage. They should be smarter about jumping in general.
• Now choose to be near you based on the length of the path to you, not just on how far they are from you as the crow flies.
• Will now use their stimshot sooner.
• Will no longer use a medkit on you if they revive you close to a (powered) health station. Also tweaked when they will use a medkit if everyone has a medkit and there are nearby medkits to pick up.
• Will no longer attempt to heal you while you’re sprinting or after you pick up a health item.
• Will no longer attempt to heal themselves or others in a hazard (like Sapper gas) but may still try to heal you with lots of enemies around if they’re the last one standing.
• Decreased the amount of time they’ll try to heal you during a fight, though, so they have time to protect themselves too. (This can result in them trying and failing to revive you a number of times before they succeed. That’s not a bug.)
• Are smarter about switching to their secondary weapon if their primary is empty and reloading is inconvenient at the moment.
• Are smarter about staying away from enemies while reloading.
• Try not to pop Sappers near allies.
• Try not to hold open fences.
• Will now use flashlights in certain dark areas or if the person they’re following has theirs on.
• Now take into account print time as well as pickup delay time when choosing whether to start an item print.
• Are a little smarter about joining you at rally objectives (like the one at the end of Radio Silence).

Enemies

• Tweaked director timing to better tune when mobs spawn and when they don’t.
• Sometimes beasts spawned when they weren’t supposed to. Fixed.
• Beast plasma attacks should line up better between the Beast and the target now.
• Tuned enemy health across difficulties. (E.g. Increased the health of heavy drones in Easy and Normal difficulty levels and increased health of Beast across all difficulties.)
• Drones no longer run as fast.
• It was possible for the Whiplash to drag you places that should trigger events without those events triggering. (For example, if a mission was set to give you information when you entered a room but you entered that room in the mouth of the Whiplash, you wouldn’t get that information.) Fixed.
• The Whiplash now has an outline when it has a victim.
• Whiplashes no longer drop you and go off in search of someone else when you go unconscious.
• Fixed a bug where, if you hit the Sapper with fire during its charge-up to explode, it would still explode.
• Decreased the distance a Sapper flies when you shove it.
• Put a cooldown timer on the “saw a Sapper” callout. We now spawn a bunch of sappers at once in some places and getting multiple callouts one after another was more distracting than helpful.
• Fixed a bug that was preventing us from playing VO of you coughing when in Sapper gas.
• The Thresher used to get damaged by pinning you. He should get some damage when he’s knocked off but not just from the act of pinning.
• The Thresher will now prowl to a much closer range before pouncing if no players manage to see it. His speed has been increased and leap distance shortened. Also, his health has been tuned.
• The Thresher is smarter and smoother about changing targets when he’s under fire.
• Improved the look of the Thresher while also improving his perf.
• Fixed a bug where Thresher music played twice for every one spawned.
• Tweaked the damage the heavy drone does.
• Decreased the number of bones in the light drone and how we calculate movement in order to improve performance. Updated drone animations also.
• Fixed a bug where drones would rotate in place when their target moved away. They’re not supposed to be THAT easily distracted.
• Improved drone flanking behavior. They should be less likely to run over to the side like they were distracted by something before attacking.
• Fixed a bug where shoving a drone sometimes caused it to fly toward you instead of away from you. Also fixed a bug where, to someone watching you shove a drone, it looked like you were using The Force. In general, knocking back a drone should behave better.
• Shooting a drone in the eye now causes its head to explode, same as shooting it anywhere else in the head. (Regular drones and spitters, not heavy drones.)
• Changed how drones fall when they die. The goal was “a more satisfyingly floppy death.”
• Added particle and sound effects when you decapitate an enemy.
• Updated the way drones sound in general – more like a swarm.
• Dead drones no longer play the “hit” sound when you shove them.
• Also updated the look of drones and sappers. Some drones will now spawn already looking damaged.
• Improved the look of the flames when a drone is on fire.
• When aliens are checking whether you can see them, they no longer count you if you’re dead.
• Fixed some bugs where enemy music (e.g. the music that plays when there’s a Beast around) and holdout music would continue playing through loading screens and other situations where it shouldn’t. We still have a bug where exiting to the Main Menu during a swarm will continue to play sounds of aliens.

General Changes to Levels

• Added cinematics to the beginning of each level to minimize inappropriate AI story-telling during heated battles.
• We’ve updated lighting in every level. It should look the same or better now but let us know your feedback.

Supply Run

• Fixed some places where you could be safe from damage or get to places you shouldn’t. Also fixed some places where AI companions couldn’t heal you.
• Fixed a spot where a Beast could get stuck and then wouldn’t despawn correctly.
• Changed the way you get thru the backyard fence.
• Fixed a spot where you could fall endlessly in place if you stepped there.
• Removed a truck for perf reasons. Sadly, Jonas still sometimes will tell you to take a right at that non-existent semi. We’ll either put it back or edit his call-out in a future update.
• AIs could get stuck between the picnic table and the tent. Fixed that and a number of other navigation issues.
• When you open the gate at Zippy’s, specials spawn faster. Get ready!
• Fixed a place where AIs could fail to enter a storage unit if you put fences at the door.
• Fixed some non-functional fire extinguishers and fire barrels.
• Updated the music.

Breakdown

• Changed the lighting.
• Fixed places where you or your companions could get stuck if you were unlucky.
• Fixed some places where you were safe from damage.
• Fixed some places where AI companions could fail to reach you if you placed a fence at the top of a ladder.
• Added some sounds – e.g. added a sound for when the van starts (or doesn’t).
• Fixed some minor graphical issues like the posters on the counter clipping.

Data Recovery

• Fixed issue to fall damage.
• Fixed a place where drones could get stuck at the top of some stairs and some other navigation issues.
• Fixed a place where AIs couldn’t revive you if you passed out.
• Whiplashes should no longer be able to drop you outside the world.

Radio Silence

• Changed the look of the shard.
• Fixed places where you could put a fence at the top of a ladder and prevent AI companions from reaching you.
• Fixed several places where AIs could get stuck.
• Fixed some places where you could get stuck.
• Fixed some places where you could stand and be safe from enemies and/or unable to be healed by AI companions.
• Created new water material to make water look better.
• Added a Loot Cache based on teams current status.
• Fixed a place where you could see through the big pipe in the swamp.
• Fixed a bug where the fence around the forklift might not look right if you joined a game in progress.
• Fixed a bug where cocoon objective icons could hang around if you joined a game in progress.
• Made it more likely AI companions will ride the train with you.
• Used to be that shooting the rebar on the train made huge bullet holes in the air. Fixed.
• Fixed a bug where it looked like your friend on the turret on the train was jittering.
• Slowed down turret movement to give it more weight.
• Update the boss holdout time.
• Updated the helicopter.
• Updated the music.

Under the Hood

• Upgraded Unreal to 4.16.
• Upgraded FMOD. This enabled us to make sounds more efficient, using less processing.
• Reduced download size by removing unused and duplicate files.

Key Features:

• Co-operative Survival For up to Four Players - Team up with friends to survive the alien infestation. Robust multiplayer support and A.I. teammates stand ready to ensure a full team at any time regardless of available players
• Build Your Defenses - Strategically deploy barricades to block the enemy hordes and install turrets anywhere to create perfect alien killing zones
• Print Your Weapons - Use advanced 3D printers to print more than twenty different weapons to use against the vicious alien enemies
• Multiple Campaigns - Each campaign tells a story across several missions, allowing players to dive in and experience diverse settings and mission types across the Pacific Northwest (one campaign availabile in initial Early Access release)
• Close Encounters of the Brutal Kind - Deadly aliens come in all shapes and sizes, from massive drones armies attacking in waves to towering behemoths spitting plasma, every experience is different, each time you play
• Battle Unpredictable Enemies - Earthfall features a dynamic spawn system providing a constant set of new challenges lurking behind every corner
• An Unfolding Story - Every campaign reveals new content and secrets behind the world of Earthfall and the cataclysmic alien invasion

Currently available on Steam Early Access, Earthfall is scheduled for release for PS4, Xbox One and PC.