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.

Mexico-based developer Dark Machine Games, alongside indie horror publisher DreadXP, announced a major anniversary Steam Early Access update for White Knuckle, arriving on April 17th!

After a full calendar year of great escapes and breathtaking speed runs, the team is ready to enhance and upgrade the pure adrenaline-pumping experience that White Knuckle offers, headlined by the addition of Trinkets and Bindings: unique equipment obtained from clearing objectives that players can select at the outset of every Run. Trinkets provide buffs to player Stats & Abilities, while Bindings grant additional Trinket slots & increase score multipliers—at the cost of a severe debuff.

The addition of Trinkets and Bindings allows players to further tailor the gameplay of White Knuckle to fit their preferred style of challenge. Some of the new Trinkets include the Carabiner, which lowers your stamina drain & boosts jumps, the Extra Pouch which provides a bonus utility pouch in your inventory, and the Headlamp: a flashlight that doesn't need to be cranked, but at the cost of inferior range. Meanwhile, some of the available Bindings include: No Shops (meaning all Vendors are sold out,) No Perks, and Survival Mode, which adds the Hunger mechanic from Conditioned Polyphagia (without buffs) & an Injury system when taking damage.

In addition to Trinkets & Bindings, the anniversary update also introduces a newly revamped metaprogression in the form of Facility Credits, which can be used to purchase Facility Upgrades. Formerly known as the gamemode bank, Roaches banked during Runs are now stored as Facility Credits. Beginning each Run, players will receive an allotment of starting roaches pulled from your Facility Credit pool, and can also obtain more Facility Credits using the Roach ATM with a floppy disk.

Roaches and Facility Credits can be used to purchase Facility Upgrades in Interlude safe rooms. These upgrades are divided into Sector & Global upgrades, allowing players to access new stations in each safe area, as well as activate permanent buffs & cosmetics. Select Sector upgrades include the Recycling Station, which recycles items into roaches at 50% of their value, the Extra Vendor (which brings an additional vendor to the sector’s safe area), and Vendor Upgrades, which replaces a vendor in safe areas with one that provides higher tier items. Some of the Global Upgrades include the Starter Loan (which allows for additional roach withdrawals at a run’s start), the Biomod Oversupply that allows you to reroll perks at no cost once per station, and the Permanent Inventory unlock Pouch Trinket.

In addition to the above, the major Anniversary Update for White Knuckle also adds in a variety of fresh content, including a New Challenge Map, new Score Calculation mechanics, and a new Competitive Mode for all speedrunners and other obsessives, which limits perks to a smaller pool that are speedrun viable and sets all facility unlocks to true, removing metaprogression components.

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.