Heart of the Machine News

Heart of the Machine Update 11: New Early-Game Paths, StreetSense Additions

The Machine is no longer keeping you on a tight leash. This update introduces new StreetSense events in the prologue, letting players start going off-road much earlier—whether that means responding to an apartment fire, dealing with a water theft, or getting involved in a parking dispute at a motel. These aren’t just tutorial diversions; they’re the first steps toward a less linear early game, where side content starts shaping your timeline from the beginning.

For those who prefer more direct intervention, new break-in actions allow players to steal or leave behind valuables in citizen homes, but push your luck too far and humans will wise up, upgrading their security. Meanwhile, personality-based resources can now be obtained earlier, resource tracking has been improved across multiple lenses, and combat units now respect their positioning better when targeting buildings.

Also, for those concerned about firefighter survival rates, know that if you make a habit of killing them, they’ll start working with SecForce and laying traps. Actions have consequences, after all.

Here’s what’s changed.

“There is no justice in the laws of nature, no term for fairness in the equations of motion. The universe is neither evil, nor good, it simply does not care.” — The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal

[h2]Building the Machine – Your Feedback Shapes What Comes Next[/h2][hr][/hr]The Machine shifts and recalibrates thanks to you. Every adjustment, from smarter targeting to rebalanced enemies to the appropriate amount of existential dread, comes from the feedback you provide.

If you haven’t yet, leave a Steam review—whether it’s praise, critique, or a warning about what happens when the wrong systems gain control, your words help shape what comes next.

Keep sharing your thoughts, and if you haven’t yet, leave a Steam review—your words help determine what this world becomes.

[h2]Update 11 Changelog[/h2][hr][/hr][expand][h2]Expanded Early-Game Exploration[/h2]

Early StreetSense Additions: Starting in the prologue, after you've learned that humans are not a source of safety, a trio of new StreetSense events are available: Apartment Fire, LostGen Water Theft, and Citizen Parking at Motel. These new options allow for early off-roading, and more will be added in future updates.
Apartment Fire: Available even in Chapter 2 and beyond, this event allows you to gain Compassion or Cruelty with minimal effort. If you kill too many firefighters, they will begin laying traps for you alongside SecForce in that timeline.
LostGen Water Theft: A recurring event that offers a choice between Compassion, Apathy, or Cruelty. This decision does not affect your future relationship with the LostGen rebel group.
Citizen Parking at Motel: Lets you trade Consumer Goods for Compassion, gain a cache of Apathy, or farm a small amount of Cruelty.
New Chapter One StreetSense Actions: After unlocking electricity generation, a new set of four StreetSense actions allow you to break into homes and either steal valuables or leave unexpected gifts. Depending on the level of citizen housing, you can steal Wealth, Consumer Goods, Fine Goods, or Furniture. These actions can also generate Creativity, one of their most useful applications. However, breaking in too many times will cause humans to adapt, issuing a security patch to reinforce their doors.

[h2]Gameplay & Balance Adjustments[/h2]

Early Personality Resource Notifications: Now that some personality-based resources can be obtained earlier in the prologue, the game will inform players about them sooner than before.
Player Unit Targeting Improvement: Player units were already prioritizing landing on buildings when moving in close (for melee or otherwise), but now they will do a better job of that when the building is near the edge of a cell. Previously, they would sometimes fail to respect that positioning.
NPC Unit Targeting Improvements: There are three major sets of NPC targeting logic improvements. These focus on a lot of the background conflicts, or ongoing side-beefs between NPC factions, or invaders from outside the city. These different groups all now behave more sensibly, and others behave more sensibly in regard to them. The biggest takeaway is that everyone is a lot less interested in shooting you when they seemingly should be more about shooting each other.

[h2]Bug Fixes & Optimizations[/h2]

Fixed a bug that required keeping a dragon around to start Contact an ExoCorp, Question Wastelanders, Uterine Replicators, and Homo Obscurus. This made these options much harder to access for players who are (for some reason) not dragon enthusiasts.
Fixed Wind Turbine Visual Bug: Turbines were missing their actual turbines—they now spin as intended.
Fixed a bug where suppressing fire was not working as advertised, but only hitting the target itself.
Removed outdated metadata that was visible in Inspect Mode for buildings but was not actually used.
Suppressing Fire now works as intended, debuffing all enemies within the attack range of your unit, rather than just the target.
Exception Fixes: A couple of fairly rare exceptions that people were reporting since the last update have now been fixed. They were harmless, but annoying.
Bulk Clarity: High-Density Rounds and Format Optimization are now much more clear that they don't work on the bulk versions of those units, but only on the elites.
Savegame Performance Boost: Micro-optimizations to Arcen's custom data serializer have improved save speeds by about 57% savings. Further optimizations for minor background objects have reduced savegame sizes to 53% of their previous size. This benefits GOG cloud saves in particular, but is frankly nice for everyone.
Autosave Defaults: The game now defaults to 10 autosaves per profile, rather than 15, to again ease the load on cloud saves for everyone. You can of course change this to be much higher or lower if you prefer.

[/expand]
[h3]Full Changelog[/h3][hr][/hr]A full, comprehensive breakdown of every change from this patch can be found in the Heart of the Machine Wiki, found here.

[h3]Guides to Tame the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Even the most brilliant mind needs guidance when faced with a system as vast as this one. To help you navigate, we’ve pinned two essential resources from the Heart of the Machine wiki:

[h3]New Minds, Start Here[/h3][hr][/hr]For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

We've recently released the Heart of the Machine Hacking Guide as well! Knowledge is power. Guard it well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422241019

[h3]Connect with the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/2001070/announcements/detail/510700142275332360
https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/2001070/announcements/detail/524210308312468720

Save 20% on Heart of the Machine

Save 20% on Heart of the Machine during the Hooded Horse Spring Sale.

Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale 2025

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070/Heart_of_the_Machine/

Heart of the Machine at the Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale

The Hooded Horse Spring Sale is live, with Heart of the Machine at 20% off, alongside discounts on other games. Check it out on Steam.

Hooded Horse Spring Publisher Sale 2025

[h3]Building the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]The Machine continues to evolve. Update 10 takes the first steps toward a less linear early game, giving players more side content and greater freedom to shape their approach. Unit badges introduce a new layer of strategic depth, letting you enhance individual androids—until their destruction, of course. Meanwhile, Android Torpor ensures your best assets can be stored for later use, preventing costly losses.

Beyond these additions, StreetSense and Scavenging Site filters improve resource tracking, debates with the wealthy have been rebalanced, and Dual Handguns now deliver the firepower they were always meant to. With more changes on the horizon, where the Machine goes next is up to you.

Read more about it here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/510700142275332360?snr=1_2108_9__2107

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070/Heart_of_the_Machine/

Heart of the Machine Update 10: On Contemplations, Tactical Badges, and...

The Machine expands, and so do your choices. Update 10 marks the first steps toward a less linear early game, giving players more side content and freedom to explore beyond the tutorial’s structure. This is just the beginning—future updates will build on this, opening up more pathways early on so players can engage with the game’s deeper mechanics sooner.

One major addition is unit-specific badges, a shift that makes certain androids and operatives stand out. Normally, all units are interchangeable—expendable, even—but now you can create heroes of your own making. These consumable badges, available at Intelligence Class 5, let you boost individual units with permanent enhancements… until they’re destroyed, of course. Alongside this, the Android Torpor action gives you a way to shelve units for later, ensuring your best assets aren’t wasted before their time.

Meanwhile, StreetSense and Scavenging Site filters make resource tracking smoother, debates with the wealthy have been rebalanced for a touch of realism, and Dual Handguns now actually pull their weight.

It’s a small step toward bigger changes, with more on the way. The Machine shifts—where you take it from here is up to you.

"The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn." — The Discovery of the Future, H.G. Wells

[h2]Building the Machine[/h2][hr][/hr]The Machine shifts, recalibrates, and occasionally acknowledges your existence. Every change—whether it’s untangling targeting logic, adjusting enemy behavior, or ensuring the correct volume of existential dread—comes from the feedback you provide.

Keep sharing your thoughts, and if you haven’t yet, leave a Steam review—your words help determine what this world becomes.

[h2]Update 10 Changelog[/h2][hr][/hr][expand]

Early Contemplations & Dog Rescues: Contemplations now unlock much earlier in Chapter One, and the ability to rescue dogs has been moved up as well.
Bulk Android Squads & Converted Units: Now provide clear feedback when attempting to load them into transports, noting that it's not possible and why.
Permanent Unit Badges: Consumable items have been added that grant permanent badges to individual units, enhancing them beyond their usual capabilities. However, these upgrades do not apply to unit types—if the specific unit dies, the badge is lost.
Intelligence Class 5 Badge Unlocks: Upon reaching Intelligence Class 5, the first four badge-granting consumables become available: Sprinter, Wizard, Wall, and Intimidating Shadow.
Android Torpor (StreetSense, Intelligence Class 5): A new Android Torpor action allows players to put an android into a hidden sleep for a mild, non-renewable cost. This preserves the unit for later use, particularly useful for units with badges that would otherwise be lost.
People-Watching Debates: Wealthy citizen debates have been rebalanced based on player feedback.
Dual Handguns Rebalanced: Now scale twice as strongly as regular handguns. Thanks to Pingcode for suggesting and implementing this.
StreetSense & Scavenging Site Lens Filters: Resource filters for the StreetSense lens have been split into sub-filters, and the Scavenging Sites lens now includes filters—both based on player requests.
Unit Scrapping List Order: Now matches the Forces sidebar, ensuring a sensible unit order.
Expanded Inspect Mode: Holding Ctrl now allows you to inspect buildings in any lens, rather than just in Versatile and Structures.
Quick Equipment & Filtering Shortcuts: Ctrl-clicking a unit type button in Command Mode now jumps directly to the equipment screen for that unit type. Ctrl-clicking a building type in Build Mode now filters by its internal robotics. Ctrl-clicking a resource in the Ledger, main resource view, or top-left game header now jumps directly to its Input/Output report. If no data is available, the screen will be skipped.
Ledger & Input/Output Report Improvements: The Ledger now includes salaries, TPN usage, and other non-job-related expenses/incomes that were previously missing. The Input/Output Report now displays all expenses and incomes, including deals, making resource tracking more comprehensive.
Ignoring Reports Made Clearer: The option to ignore Ledger and TPS reports is now more clearly displayed in their tooltips.

[h3]Fixes & Adjustments[/h3]

Slum Tower Clearance Fix: Completely clearing all slum towers in the city no longer blocks two specific projects.
Unit Mouse Collider Adjustments: The mouse collider size for War Raptors and Parkour Bears has been adjusted to not be oversized.
AOE Attack Fix: AOE attacks hitting your units as secondary targets will no longer cause NPCs to appear in the “attacks planned against your units” list.
Autosave Purging Update: Autosave purging is now sorted based on date and time instead of in-game time, ensuring proper save management when loading older savegames.
Microbuilder Mini-Fab Message Fix: The "damaged buildings" repair spiders message now only appears when buildings are actually damaged by enemies, rather than when first constructing a Microbuilder Mini-Fab.
Exception Fixes: A handful of player-reported exceptions have been fixed.

[h3]New Minds, Start Here[/h3][hr][/hr]For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

We've recently released the Heart of the Machine Hacking Guide as well! Knowledge is power. Guard it well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422241019

[h3]Connect with the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/2001070/announcements/detail/524210308312468720
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2001070/view/530965072572320673
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/530965072572317985

0.652.5 Hotfix 5

Here’s a quick hotfix that improves a couple of things from the prior build, and also adds a few bits of balance and QoL items requested by players.

0.652.5 Hotfix 5 Armor piercing improvements have been removed from all of the research categories except for Item Development. These were diluting the pools of small arms research in particular, but also vehicular development and similar.
Rebalanced the Worker androids entirely. The PMC Impostors are 80% as strong as before, and the Predators and Sledges are 133% stronger than before. This mostly affects Extreme mode, making them more balanced as a group.
Tooltips with status effects on them now show how many more turns that status effect will last.
Fixed an issue where if you were doing the new People Watching project, but had not already done the steal corporate records project, then it would constantly start the investigation for stealing corporate records and then stop it.
Fixed a minor typo in Gang Akimbo dialogue.
Fixed an issue where the ArcenExternalDllInitialLoadCallTable changes were not working properly for modders.

Full notes here.

“Does the machine speak for us, or do we now speak for the machine?”
— William Gibson, Neuromancer

[h3]Guides to Tame the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Even the most brilliant mind needs guidance when faced with a system as vast as this one. To help you navigate, we’ve pinned two essential resources from the Heart of the Machine wiki:

[h3]New Minds, Start Here[/h3][hr][/hr]For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

We've recently released the Heart of the Machine Hacking Guide as well! Knowledge is power. Guard it well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422241019

[h3]Connect with the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/2001070/announcements/detail/524210308312468720
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2001070/view/530965072572320673
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/530965072572317985