Xenonauts 2 News

Milestone 7.7.0 Released! (Experimental)

[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]

Xenonauts 2 Releases into 1.0 April 2026

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.

Xenonauts 2 1.0 is ready for deployment, and that's great news if you're a fan of classic XCOM

Xenonauts 2 developer Goldhawk Interactive has revealed that, after nearly three years in early access, the tactical strategy game will be throwing you out of the frying pan and into the fires of an Earth set ablaze by alien invasion next month. Alongside a brand new alien foe that will have your squadron moving like Ripley on the USCSS Nostromo, the 1.0 patch is also set to bring OG map reworks, extra robust modding support, and more.

Read the rest of the story...

Milestone 7.6.0 Released! (Experimental)

[p]Added two Scout UFO crash site maps for each biome.[/p]
[p]Updated the Geoscape UI placeholder background, and generally made the colours in that area a bit more muted. With the addition of the Supoprters / Strategic Operations and the new UI that came with it, that area had become rather busy.[/p]
[p]Added two new "tutorial" pop-notifications that explain quality of life functionality that many newer players were unaware of:[/p]
- [p]Soldier screen - added a popup explaining how to sort the various tables by header, which makes managing / recruiting soldiers much easier.[/p]
- [p]Armory screen - added a popup explaining the various QOL shortcuts in the bottom left assignment panel (e.g. RMB unassign, click-and-drag to reorder team, double-click to replace soldier)[/p]
[p]Added a Close button to the Soldier Loadout selection pop-up on the Armory screen.[/p]
[p]Added the final artwork for the Colossus Automed System (this now appears when the item is equipped).[/p]
[p]We've fixed a lot of localisation issues / untranslated text over the past week, and will continue to do so in the coming few weeks. We've also gone through to fix places where the UI was breaking due to foreign languages having much longer text stirngs than the English equivalent.[/p]

[p]Balance Changes:[/p]

[p]Fixed an issue where Terror Site spawned from Terror UFOs that aren't shot down (as opposed to Terror Sites that spawn automatically) were significantly harder than they should be.[/p]
[p]The AI will now always replan its actions whenever it sights a new hostile unit, which should hopefully reduce the number of aliens positioning themselves in extremely vulnerable positions.[/p]
[p]Reduced the AI "kill" bonus for certain alien species - this represents how much weighting an enemy gives to attacking a target it believes it can kill, rather than simply scoring as many hits with its weapon as possible. Practically, this means that "smart" aliens (Wraiths, Psyons, Sectons, etc) are more likely to prioritise attacks that will actually secure kills, whereas melee-only or "dumb" aliens (Androns, Sebillians) will favour the enemies that are easiest to hit (usually the closest enemies).[/p]
[p]Made another row of tiles at the front of the Battleship UFO exterior walkable, making the front door more accessible.[/p]

[p]Bugfixes:[/p]

[p]Fixed a crash that could occur if you clicked the Open Mod Folder button on the Mod Management popup when no mod existed.[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug where an AI unit would take no further actions that turn if a reaction fire shot was fired at them during their movement.[/p]
[p]Fixed another bug that was causing grenades to unnecessarily strike the ceiling when underground or inside buildings.[/p]
[p]Fixed Colossus-wearing soldiers being suppressable when they were not meant to be.[/p]
[p]Fixed the Colossus model not rendering in the tactical combat if the Automed System was equipped.[/p]
[p]Fixed the Power Capacity tooltip (which shows the power calculation) being broken on the Base screen.[/p]
[p]Fixed a lot of aliens displaying the wrong corpses, as I had not updated these after making the changes to alien ranks earlier in Milestone 7.[/p]
[p]Fixed the UOO Bridge mission briefing incorrectly listing "Elliminate all hostile units" as an objective.[/p]
[p]Fixed the Xenopedia font displaying accented character glyphs slightly differently from standard characters, making the text difficult to read in several non-English languages.[/p]
[p]Fixed several visual issues on the Western Town Cleaner data raid maps.[/p]
[p]Fixed a visual issue with the Endgame part 1 roofs.[/p]
[p]Fixed several destruction issues with alien walls.[/p]

Milestone 7.5.0 Released! (Experimental)

[p]The Psyon "Mesmerise" ability no longer checks against Morale, as it would very rarely succeed in M6. It now checks against Bravery, using a random 100 roll against this formula:[/p]
- [p](Bravery - 25) x 2.[/p]
- [p]Effectively this means soldiers have 2% resist chance against Mesmerise for each point of Bravery above 25, and they become entirely immune to Mesmerise at 75 Bravery.[/p]
[p]Sebillians and Androns now have 40% resistance against Energy and Kinetic weapons respectively, rather than 50%. We've also fixed a bug where Sebillians were incorrectly set as being resistant to Thermal (i.e. explosive) damage rather than Energy damage.[/p]
[p]We've added a semi-placeholder update to the Geoscape UI background, as we need to update the background art to better integrate the region information bars that were added with the supporter system.[/p]
[p]The Colossus Automed System now has a placeholder visual appearance change when activated (a couple of the tubes turn green). We'll replace this with something "proper" once the art is done.[/p]
[p]Made another tweak to the tactical mission load speeds, as the previous set of fixes weren't giving the expected performance increases. This change should realize more of those load speed improvements.[/p]

[p]Bugfixes:[/p]

[p]Fixed a crash that could occur in the tactical combat if certain roof tiles were destroyed.[/p]
[p]Fixed various small memory leaks that could potentially cause crashes during extended play sessions.[/p]
[p]Fixed another set of places where dynamic text was showing ERROR messages instead of displaying correctly. If you see any of these issues in the English version of 7.5.0 then please do report it, even if it has been reported previously - we think we've fixed all known instances of this error text appearing in the game.[/p]
[p]Fixed the tutorial being broken (only in English-language versions of the game so far).[/p]
[p]Fixed an issue where soldier actions (especially move+shoot planned actions) would sometimes be interrupted by enemy overwatch that would then not occur.[/p]
[p]Fixed the Colossus Automed System incorrectly healing the armour HP rather than the soldier's HP.[/p]
[p]Fixed some roof tiles on the Western Town office building not disappearing correctly when destroyed.[/p]
[p]Fixed some Boreal sawmill upper level tiles having visual issues.[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug where a particular type of internal office wall would move one tile sideways when entering its damaged state.[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug where one row of roof tiles might not be correctly hidden when the rest of the roof was hidden.[/p]
[p]Fixed zombified civilians being able to "escape" the battlefield if they accidentally wandered onto the mission evac area.[/p]
[p]Fixed a minor judder on the Research screen when the scientist character is animating in from the right of the screen.[/p]
[p]Fixed the Main Menu mods button having the incorrect toolltip.[/p]