Endzone 2 News

Survivors!

today we release a small hotfix consisting of bugfixes and stability improvements.

• Events: Improved focus mechanism when clicking on highlighted targets in event goals that correspond to a quest item location.
  
• Expeditions: Small Relay Station technology can no longer be unlocked on Expeditions as the building was abandoned during Early Access.
  
• Tutorial: Improved ping mechanism for highlighting an expedition site to gain Knowledge during Tutorial
  
• Audio: Fixed an error that occurred when vehicles were driving at the outer edges of the map.
  
• UI: Energy can no longer be looted from ruins.
  

Your Teams from Gentlymad & Assemble | 1.0.9337.26653 #a794b8682

[p]Survivors,

The full release of Endzone 2 is here – and with it comes a whole new challenge: Raiders have entered the wasteland! For the first time, enemy convoys threaten your settlements with coordinated zone attacks, devastating artillery strikes, and daring resource raids. Every encounter is a high‑stakes battle – defend your people to claim victory, or watch raiders escape with your hard‑earned supplies.

Will you rise to defend your settlement – or fall to the raider menace?[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]

[/p][p][/p][h2]We have a little gift for you[/h2][p]
As a heartfelt thank you for your incredible support during Early Access and beyond, we're giving away a special piece of the journey: the Endzone 2: Campfire Sessions Soundtrack. This special soundtrack features five atmospheric songs that have, until now, only been heard in our trailers.[/p][p]The soundtrack is free for everyone who owns Endzone 2—whether you've been with us from the start or just joined at release. It should appear automatically in your library (for some it's already there, for others it might take a day or two).[/p][p]The offer is available until two weeks after release, so make sure to claim your copy in time.

From all of us: thank you. ❤️[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
[/p][h2]
Update Highlights Breakdown[/h2][p] [/p][h3]Raiders are back[/h3][p]→ Raiders now roam and terrorize the wastelands [/p][h3]Combat mechanics[/h3][p]→ To secure your settlement, vehicles can be equipped with weapons[/p][h3]New buildings[/h3][p]→ Bunker, Monument to Defense, Decontamination lab [/p][h3]New items[/h3][p]→ New items have been added to stand a chance against raiders[/p][h3]New and updated expeditions[/h3][p]→ Expedition that has new items to loot, and to further enhance infrastructures [/p][h3]Audio Update[/h3][p]→ New voiceovers, rabble sounds, attack barks and feedback lines[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Audio: Added new voiceovers, rabble sounds, and attack barks.
Audio: Added new VO feedback for vehicle destruction and spawning.
Audio: Implemented settler click barks for zone attacks.
Buildings: Added a bunker building that can be placed in the badlands using the Pioneer in order to defend territory against raiders. In order for bunkers to work they need to be equipped with a weapon item.
Buildings: Buildings in the badlands can now be repaired with Iron Tools using the Pioneer.
Buildings: Added a new monument that can be unlocked through a side mission that focusses on defeating raiders.
Buildings: Added Decontamination lab that produces decontamination kits.[/p][p][/p][p]Expeditions: Added new expeditions where weapon items can be found.
Expeditions: Added a new expedition that provides electricity when completed.
Expeditions: Resource mines in the badlands now profit from electricity networks.
Items: Added various weapon items that can be found on expeditions or purchased at trading posts.
Raiders: Added 3 Raider characteres known from Endzone - A World Apart, each with own bunkers and vehicles.
Raiders: Raiders now attack settlements with artillery. A tribute can be payed to stop the attack or to lower the intensity.
Raiders: Raiders now steal your resources if they successfully attacked a settlement.
Raiders: Raider vehicles now roam the map in mid- to late-game, turning the wasteland into dangerous, shifting territory.
Raiders: Raider bunkers spawn across the map, creating new threats that challenge your movement and decision-making in the badlands.
Raiders: New achievements reward those who take the fight to the raiders.
Raiders: Added new VFX, including smoke, debris, and muffled impact effects that amplify the chaos.
Raiders: A new sub-tutorial helps you survive the raider threat... or at least understand what killed you.
Raiders: Added a new game goal that focusses on defeating raiders.
[/p][p]UI: Info for seed rating replaced with stars and new tooltip.
UI: Implemented notification for zone attack events.
UI: Added notification for destroyed interzone buildings.
UI: Added minimap ping for constructed vehicles.
UI: Added repair info to unit health bars.
Vehicles: Destroyed vehicles now leave a wreck that can be looted.
Vehicles: Most vehicles can now be equipped with weapon items in order to attack or defend.
Vehicles: The behaviour of vehicles can now be set to aggressive or defensive.

[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Buildings: Fixed sandmine crashes and power pole visibility.
Buildings: Decontaminators now profit from electricity.
Events: Tutorial zone reveal for invalid zones now triggers correctly.
Events: Fixed dialog for some events of the same type being not correctly displayed.
Expeditions: Fixed various gameplay and localization issues.
Gameplay: Fixed multiple minimap display issues and UI highlights.
Gameplay: Fixed lags when sending vehicles by improving pathfinding logic.
Localization: Fixed various localization issues.
Repair: Several stability and bug fixes for damaged buildings after sandstorms.

[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Expeditions: Camera now moves to new explorer position when explorer is teleported (e.g. in vents).
UI: Removed branch dropdown and feedback buttons from main menu.
UI: Improved HUD layout and LargeMap elements.
UI: The resource list in the HUD can now be expanded to have an overview of all resources.
UI: Notification sounds now have a delay to prevent sound spamming.
Radiation: Decontaminatiors now require decontamination kits to remove ground radiation.
Radiation: Removed Decontamination Kits from settler radiation protection.
Seeds: Caoutchouc is no unlocked from the beginning.
Vehicles: Vehicle physics adjusted to prevent overlapping.
Vehicles: Wheels of vehicles no longer move away from the chassis when moving on slopes.
Vehicles: Selectable vehicles now show group index for better identification.[/p][p]
[/p][h2]🔧 Get into 1.0 – And Let Us Know What You Think![/h2][p]We’re incredibly excited about the full release update and can’t wait to hear your feedback about the newly added Raiders. Share your thoughts, strategies, and screenshots on Steam Discussions or our Discord.

Survive smart. Survive strong. 🧠💪

💚 Your Teams from Gentlymad & Assemble | 1.0.9336.24144 #767b674ff

[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[p]Hey Survivors,[/p][p]The moment we’ve all been waiting for is almost here — Endzone 2 is launching out of Early Access into full release (v1.0) on July 24, 2025! 🧨[/p][p][/p][p]Check out the new trailer here: [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]After nearly a year of intense development, nine major updates, countless improvements, and your incredible feedback along the way, we’re finally ready to drop the “Early” from “Early Access”. And trust us — it’s been one hell of a journey.[/p][p][/p][p]You helped us test, tweak, and rebuild systems, survive harsh weather (in-game and out), and grow Endzone 2 into the massive, complex survival strategy game it was always meant to be. From the first expedition to the latest Settlement overhaul, every part of the game has been shaped by this amazing community. ❤️[/p][p][/p][h2]So what’s new in Version 1.0?[/h2]

• [p]RAIDERS are back: better, meaner, and more immersive than ever.[/p]
• [p]Vehicle Combat: we're introducing vehicle-based combat as a new gameplay mechanic![/p]

[p][/p][p]Additionally, here’s what you can expect from Endzone 2 in the final release (including the above):[/p]

• [p]Multi-settlement Survival: discover and develop isolated zones, each with unique resources and threats.[/p]
• [p]Trade & Expeditions: deploy and upgrade your settlement bus, establish trade routes, and send teams on risky expeditions.[/p]
• [p]Dynamic Disasters: face radiation storms, droughts, toxic rain, and more.[/p]
• [p]Tons of new content: electricity, education, upcycling, bulletin boards, hunting.[/p]
• [p]9 Major Updates' worth of polish: tons of new content, improved QoL, performance, stability, and bug squashing galore.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Whether you're a veteran of the wasteland or joining us fresh, there's never been a better time to play.[/p][p][/p][h2]Save the Date: July 24, 2025[/h2][p]That’s when Endzone 2 officially leaves Early Access and becomes the full, final game we’ve been building together.[/p][p]Until then, keep surviving, keep sending us your thoughts (we’re always listening), and maybe… one last run through the desert before the storm hits?[/p][p][/p][h2]Little Reminder Ahead of the Release[/h2][p]Thanks for surviving the harsh wasteland with us. If you want to help make the colony even stronger, please think about sharing your thoughts with the community by leaving a review on our Steam page—it helps more than you know, thank you![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][h3]Your Teams from Gentlymad & Assemble[/h3][p][/p][h3]We’d love to have you join us on Discord! It’s the perfect place to share your feedback, connect with other players, and engage in discussions with our team.[/h3][h3]Discord is our primary platform, and your input would be incredibly valuable. Don’t hesitate—come say hello! 😊[/h3][p][/p][p] Official World of Endzone discord server[/p]

Survivors! today we release a small hotfix consisting of bugfixes and stability improvements.

• MainMenu: Added credits and feedback button.

• Transportation Routes: Fixing an error that potentially occurred when vehicles on transportation routes were trying to find their next access point to drive to.
• Rendering: Stability fix for an error that occurred when trying to render entities with invalid animation id.
• Expeditions: Fixed progress of expeditions sometimes being wrong after loading a save game. This happened with the wind generator and other expeditions.

Your Teams from Gentlymad & Assemble | 0.8.9307.25882 #c6de2284a

[h3]Survivors![/h3]
As promised, we are back for Part 2 😎

Today, we are diving deeper into the technical and visual challenges behind the game’s expedition system.

Let's jump straight into it!



One of the most ambitious changes? The new underground expeditions, including the Endzone bunker system, a name-giving location in the world’s lore.
These levels posed unique technical challenges.
“The systems are optimized for the above-ground world. Underground, we had to create an illusion, and spawn another world and hide it from view,” one developer explained.

It would definitely break the immersion if as a player, you noticed you were actually floating 1,000 meters up in the air, above the map..!




[h2]Lighting and textures[/h2]

The illusion of being underground relied heavily on visual trickery and precise technical work.

Lighting, for example, had to be reworked entirely to fit these new locations.
When designing those expeditions, one unexpected challenge popped up: the sun.
You’d think in a bunker 1,000 meters below the surface, the sun wouldn’t be much of a problem… but as you now know, the bunker isn’t actually below the ground, and the sun is deeply baked into Endzone 2’s rendering system.

So, since removing it wasn’t exactly the best option, the devs decided instead to freeze it at a certain position and tint it a cold, unnatural gray-purple, and put it 90 degrees on top at its perfect zenith to avoid any shadows that would look weird underground!

But then, what happens to areas the player can’t reach or see? What should the walls of the world and the areas around the underground buildings themselves look like?
Well, you guessed it, here again the team had to experiment with textures, starting with inspiration from Fallout 2: raw earth textures that worked well for low-res pixel art.
But in Endzone 2, they didn’t hold up. Eventually, the devs landed on a solution: perfectly black textures extracted from the very few perfectly black pixels available, and enhanced with carefully placed lighting. The goal? Darkness that felt real, not shiny, flat, or fake.


[h2]Pathfinding[/h2]

But visuals weren’t the only challenge.
The pathfinding system wasn’t exactly *thrilled* about verticality. The higher you went in the scene — and remember, these underground expeditions are technically floating far above the normal world — the more unstable and slow pathfinding became.



It added heavy strain on performance, especially compared to rendering, which handled the complex environments surprisingly well.


[h2]Modular design for a seamless flow![/h2]

These underground zones also rely on a layered level-loading system.

When you change levels in an underground building for example, the game unloads all other layers and then adds back the relevant ones based on your tracked position, starting from the bottom, and stopping at the level where you, as a player, are at this point in time.

This means the game is constantly checking where you are and only loading what’s relevant, which keeps performance smooth; even in a multi-level underground facility.

Another good example of the challenges verticality brought is the elevator shaft. It is very deep and not easy to navigate.
To improve the experience, the team tied the camera to the explorer on the vertical axis to have a smooth transition while going up and down, and worked hard to bring an immersive experience and manage light sources so they wouldn’t float or behave unnaturally when those walls disappear from view.



Lighting, here again, was a tricky one. Since the game engine automatically hides the back sides of walls, any light that was placed on them would just… hover in mid-air. So instead, the team had to anchor lights to structural elements like pillars, to keep everything grounded.


[h2]Wanna see a teleportation trick?[/h2]

One of the coolest technical tricks? You can walk in and out of the underground bunker with no loading screen, no button press — nothing.

How, you might ask?
Well, there’s a teleportation trigger placed at just the right spot at the elevator’s entrance/exit. The moment you walk into it, the game teleports you from the floating expedition level back to the surface base, and vice versa, all without breaking immersion.

This is the only place in the game where the player is teleported without any direct interaction.

“We had to be extra careful,” the devs noted.
“If you mess it up and the teleport loops, you could end up in a bugged-out limbo of infinite warping… and crash everything.”

So yeah… no pressure.



TLDR; a *LOT* of experimentation and work went into building and getting the “underground feeling” right. The team had to work around these issues while preserving that feeling of seamless descent into a tense, unknown place. A lot of tricks were pulled to keep everything stable, immersive, and believable!

We hope this peek behind the curtain shows just how much care went into crafting these expeditions.

See you ithere, Survivors!