Thrust into the role of a lone climber, players must attempt to ascend SUB-STRUCTURE 17, an enormous, crumbling complex buried deep underground. With ten thousand meters of concrete and decay above and an encroaching ooze below, every climb is a race against time. Navigate perilous environments, using a blend of precision movement, sharp reflexes, and resource management to scale deteriorating walls, leap across perilous gaps, dodge traps, and avoid the deadly forces lurking in the shadows.

While speed is key to survival, players must also manage a limited inventory of tools and resources to avoid becoming encumbered and plummeting into eternity. Failure to quickly retrieve key items from your bag could result in a deadly fall, making resource management and quick thinking just as important as skillful climbing. The higher players ascend in the structure, the more dangerous the obstacles become, with each new region offering unique threats and challenges.

Just don't lose your grip, it's an eternity below you.

Dark Machine Games, alongside indie horror publisher DreadXP, have revealed the release date of the first Steam Early Access content update for White Knuckle.

The Abyss Update, launching on September 29th, adds an entirely new region along with a variety of other new content.

After navigating Silos, Pipeworks, and Habitation, players will enter The Abyss, featuring three distinct levels that harbor a number of new denizens, some friendly and many others deadly, including The Face, a new form of The Mass to pursue the Climber. New to the update are Artifact Items— extremely powerful objects that replace gaining a new Perk in The Abyss, each of which can change the way you play. To offer a shorter, albeit more dangerous route to the top, unlockable shortcuts will be added for Silos and Pipeworks. Other additions include new levels in Silos and Pipeworks, new Perks, new secrets, and more.

The Abyss Update New Features:

• The Abyss: An all-new region with 3 contained levels.
• Five extremely powerful Artifact Items, which replace receiving a new Perk in the Abyss, each capable of changing how you play.
• Shortcut Regions for Silos and Pipeworks: After unlocking, skip sections of the game and climb through far shorter, more dangerous areas, at a cost.
• New Denizens
• Region Expansion in Silos and Pipeworks
• New Perks
• New Secrets
• And More!

The content update will coincide with the Steam Autumn Sale at a 15% discount.

A free demo is also available for climbers who want to do a quick stretch before going for the run.

While you may be a lone climber, you are certainly not alone. Something oozes from deep in the world, following you, growing angrier, faster, and it won't let up. Strange, malevolent denizens haunt the walls of SUB-STRUCTURE 17 and the horror intensifies as the environment itself becomes more hostile, forcing players to constantly adapt their strategies to survive. From the dry, dusty Silos to the putrid sewers of the Pipeworks and the haunted piers of Habitation, each area presents a distinct set of trials and enemies, all contributing to a sense of ever-growing tension.

Run, jump, and climb to survive... or slip and face your doom.

Every leap could be the last and it's a long way down…

Manage your inventory or become encumbered and fall to your death. Failure to grab what you need from your bag in time is a sure way to die.

White Knuckle is coming to PC (Steam) in 2026.