Xenonauts 2 News

[p]This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain![/p][p]This update breaks save games - if you have an existing Milestone 7 campaign you want to continue, you can switch to the Experimental Legacy branch to continue playing 7.10.0. Although we can't make firm promises, we're expecting this to be the final time we break campaign saves![/p][p]Gameplay Changes:[/p]

• [p]Smoke / poison gas has been darkened somewhat as it had become hard to see which specific tiles contained smoke after we recently lightened it.[/p]
• [p]Terror Sites now contain an average of 50% more Alenium, as we've fixed an issue that was causing each Alien Bomb in the map to only have a 50% chance of spawning.[/p]
• [p]The fire costs of the Mantid Bio-Rifle and Bio-Cannon (which spawn Symbiotes) has been increased to 51% / 60% (from 36% / 51%), preventing the weapon from being fired more than once per turn. Accuracy of the weapon has been raised a littlle to compensate.[/p]
• [p]Symbiotes can no longer be Suppressed, but can also no longer vault or climb.[/p]
• [p]Reaper melee damage increased by 10%.[/p]
• [p]Basic Cyberdrones now make blue explosions that do 50 damage, Heavy Cyberdrones have green explosions that do 75 damage (previously both had 60 damage green explosions).[/p]
• [p]Cleaner Soldiers in the second Abduction site now have Ballistic Rifles, rather than Magnetic Rifles.[/p]
• [p]The Psyons in the Cleaner Base now have Plasma weapons, rather than Magnetic weapons.[/p]
• [p]The Evasive Roll cooldown of the Gemini has been increased by 0.6 seconds to 2.2 sec, which means the Gemini can now roll as often as a Phantom.[/p]
• [p]Added the new style of UI arrows to the Engineering project queue.[/p]

[p]Bugfixes:[/p]

• [p]Fixed two crashes during the AI turn.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug in the tactical AI that was causing aliens to incorrectly continue to know the positions of spotted Xenonaut soldiers even after they had moved to a new position that was no longer visible.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug in the tactical AI that was causing aliens to sometimes face away from Xenonauts in combat.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where the Mantid Bio-Rifle would not spawn a Symbiote if the shot hit a tile corner rather than the center of a tile.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where attempting to change weapons when a soldier was moving would visually update their 3D model, but wouldn't change the equipped weapon in game terms - this could lead to players accidentally using the wrong weapon.[/p]
• [p]Potentially fixed an issue where it was not possible to start engineering projects even if you had the required materials - we weren't able to reproduce this, but we fixed something that could have caused it.[/p]
• [p]Fixed adjacency values for new Generator buildings not showing immediately, even though the base Power generation of the structure was added immediately.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where items / buildings that had been upgraded by an engineering project would always display their name in English, even if playing in another language.[/p]
• [p]More minor visual fixes for tactical maps and tiles.[/p]

[p]This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain![/p][p]Our next update will include several bugfixes that will break saves. Although we will keep 7.10.0 on the Experimental Legacy branches so people can continue their existing playthroughs, I suggest anyone planning to start a brand new campaign waits a few days![/p][p]Gameplay Changes:[/p]

• [p]The Doomsday progress bar on the Geoscape now has distinct sections (which each represent 5% progress) rather than being a continuous bar, which makes it look a bit cooler.[/p]
• [p]Visually improved a number of additional dropdowns and arrow buttons on the strategy UI. I've also made the arrow buttons (e.g. when recruiting new scientists / engineers) a bit more responsive to repeated fast clicks.[/p]
• [p]Added progress bars to the Base Stores: Sell and Base Stores: Transfer screens, which represent the Storage Capacity of the selected base(s).[/p]
• [p]Updated the position of the UFO name / hp / armour text rows in the air combat, as in many cases they were drawing on top of the UFO sprite and were difficult to read.[/p]

[p]Bugfixes:[/p]

• [p]The Exit Game button once again functions correctly.[/p]
• [p]Fixed tactical saves from before 7.9.0 crashing on load.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a crash on the AI turn.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the Collect Bounty system for crash sites getting broken in the previous update. It now correctly shows the bounty value on the button and grants the money correctly, and collecting the bounty does not charge OP.[/p]
• [p]Properly fixed the tiles on either side of the Battleship UFO door not being walkable.[/p]
• [p]Cyberdrones now perform an additional visual-only explosion when destroyed. Normally this cannot be seen due to the actual death explosion, but it prevents things looking silly if the Cyberdrone is killed by burst fire (as the actual death explosion can only occur after the burst has finished).[/p]
• [p]Fixed some more map layout / visual issues.[/p]

[p]This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain![/p][p]Gameplay Changes:[/p]

• [p]We've finally implemented a more advanced model for the AI that now keeps track of "known" Xenonauts vs unseen Xenonauts, which means alien units will no longer have automatic knowledge about Xenonaut units that they have not yet encountered. Basically, this should reduce the amount of obvious AI "cheating", and make flanking aliens more effective.[/p]
• [p]Research speeds have been returned to the values found in Milestone 6. We introduced a bug a few weeks ago where each Infiltrator created would permanently boost your research speed by 5% (a copy-paste error), which meant you'd frequently run out of available research even if you'd made no particular attempt to speed up your research. This has now been fixed.[/p]
• [p]Batons and Knives now have a 1.25x Reflex modifier, which means carrying them in your off-hand no longer penalises shotgun soldiers.[/p]
• [p]Symbiote melee attack now has a 30% chance to inflict a Bleeding Wound per 10 damage inflicted (down from 50%).[/p]
• [p]Made some performance improvements for units with 360-degree vision, as the Sentinel Module was causing lag for some players.[/p]
• [p]The voiceover on the intro / outro cinematic has been re-recorded with a new voice actor due to a contract issue.[/p]
• [p]Added the co-ordinates back onto the Geoscape, as it turns out some players did use them.[/p]
• [p]Panic levels are no longer shown in the topbar when hovering over a region in Phase 1.[/p]
• [p]Added a few more crash site maps to the game that weren't previously spawning due to a setup issue.[/p]

[p]Bugfixes:[/p]

• [p]Fixed the Identify Recruits strategic operation OP cost being able to go negative, and not resetting to the standard (35 OP) price after use.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the Geoscape zoom speed being dependent on framerate. It's now a consistent value for everyone.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the item totals on the Engineering screen incorrectly including items "equipped" on Unassigned soldiers, which could cause projects to show that you owned more copies of that item than you actually did.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the soldier paperdoll disappearing if you changed the loadout of an unassigned soldier on the Armory screen.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the Power Fist remaining equipped if the Colossus Armour was stripped off a soldier when they are assigned to a dropship due to there being insufficient Colossus Armours available for them to use.[/p]
• [p](Hopefully) fixed the Colossus not showing the crosshatch obstruction shader when hidden by walls etc.[/p]
• [p]Fixed aliens that have suffered an overwatch attack when moving always attempting to attack back in response, rather than finishing their planned move.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where spawned Symbiotes could incorrectly be visible in the fog of war.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the Strategic Operation info dynamic text values displaying white, rather than using the colour-coding it had in older versions of the game.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a couple more wall types in the ATLAS Base maps that were not revealing properly at certain angles.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the Western Town restaurant walls being invisible in the previous dew hotfixes.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a number of map issues.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a couple of tiles that have black z-fighting issues on Linux machines.[/p]

[p]This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain![/p][p]Gameplay Changes:[/p]

• [p]Combat Shields now have a 0.5x Reflex Modifier (previously this was incorrectly set to 1x).[/p]
• [p]The Campaign Name field when starting a new game will now accept non-Latin characters.[/p]

[p]Bugfixes:[/p]

• [p]Fixed a frequent AI hang during the alien turn in tactical missions.[/p]
• [p]Fixed alien units incorrectlly choosing to rotate away from known Xenonauts at the end of their turn.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the reinforcement spawners on the UOO Bridge Assault mission spawning the reinforcements onto the wrong set of pads, making it seem like destroying the spawners didn't actually stop the reinforcements.[/p]
• [p]Removed the "10 starting infiltrators" campaign setting, as it did not appear to work correctly.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a couple more places where error data was being shown on tooltips.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug with a specific industrial wall tile continuing to block vision when destroyed.[/p]

We’re very excited to announce that Xenonauts 2 is leaving Early Access and releasing as 1.0 on April 2, 2026, marking the end of a journey that has seen nearly three years of steady updates and improvements to the game.

Here’s our announcement trailer:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]The Road to 1.0 (and Beyond)[/h3]
Xenonauts 2 has changed a great deal during the Early Access period, with our seven major updates adding:

• Four new alien races, and five new types of UFO
  
• Dozens of new research projects, and the battlefield equipment and aircraft unlocked from them
  
• The new Strategic Operations and Supporters systems for the Geoscape
  
• Our expanded Cleaner storyline, with three new unique mission types
  
• Two new unique story missions set on an alien orbital station
  
• A climactic two-part final mission and ending cutscene
  
• A complete visual revamp of the air combat minigame (and a tutorial for it!)
  
• Strategic UI art that changes and improves as you progress through the game
  
• Many, many new maps (there’s now 180+ in the game)
  
• Lots of quality of life, balance and performance improvements
  

Although reaching 1.0 is a major milestone, it doesn’t mean our work is done – we’re planning to continue patching and improving the game after the launch (and create mod tools).

The feedback and advice we’ve received from the community during the Early Access period has been hugely important in making Xenonauts 2 the game it has become, and we want to thank everyone who has supported us on this journey.