Generation Zero® News

Greetings, Survivors!

The day has almost come – the Showdown is just 24 hours away.
In this update, you will collect new Experimental weapons, perfect your item crafting, and face off against FNIX one last time.
We’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved with our small team within a comparatively short amount of time and we can’t wait to hear what you think about it!
Let’s get right into what you can expect from tomorrow’s update:


[h2]New Story Missions[/h2]

Team up with old friends and even a new one as you look into mysterious signals coming from the island of Aspholmen west of Klinte.
To unlock these new missions, your character has to be level 25 and you have to have played through the main story (the last mission is called Behind the Curtain).
If you’ve done all of that, simply start a level 3 Base Assault and enter the secret hatch used to find the locations of Tyrants and you’ll run into a familiar face.

While we didn’t have as many resources designing the new area as we had when we made Alpine Unrest, we still put in a lot of work to make it feel fresh and engaging. You’ll find bits of environmental storytelling, interesting locations, and one or the other easter egg on Aspholmen. Happy exploring!

[h2]Base Defense Revamp[/h2]
We’ve overhauled the way Base Defense works to make it a more interesting and variable endgame activity.
First off, you will now be able to repair your base for free after each Base Defense. We made this change to reduce frustration due to losing hard earned resources in difficult defense missions.
Secondly, Base Defenses will no longer be about defending the central truck – they are evolving!
Each Control Point location will now allow you to build one new type of building each. According to which type of building you can build, you can earn new special materials used for high end crafting. The three building types are:

[h3]Drill[/h3]

Produces Phosphorus. Phosphorus is used for Fire Resistance Clothing, Adrenaline, Flares, Grenades, some Augmentation Blueprints, and some base buildings. Drills are special in that instead of just one, you can build three of them in tahe same base – just make sure to place them far from each other.

[h3]Chemical Lab[/h3]

Slowly outputs Ethanol, which is used for Jump Boost and Visibility Reduction clothes, the new Stealth Companion Armor, some Augmentations, and some healing items. Watch out, the Lab periodically explodes when turned on! Try to stay away and keep your buildings at a safe distance.

[h3]Furnace[/h3]

The Furnace is activated by placing low level crafting materials like Metal inside and selecting a desired output material. It can produce Refined Aluminium, Refined Tungsten, and Refined Uranium.
During the Base Defense, the Furnace will slowly start producing materials, but it will also heat up. You need to regularly exhaust the excess heat or it won't output the material you want! Listen for the audio cues when it’s time to vent.

[h2]New Experimental Weapons[/h2]

After the last time we released new Experimentals, you kept asking “What about the AI-76?” and we heard that. In Showdown, you can earn three new EXPs from Rivals and Tyrants:

[h3]“Any Ammo” AI-76[/h3]
Okay, “any” ammo is a lie, but “almost any ammo” just didn’t sound quite as good. While you won’t be able to put buckshot, rockets, or arrows into this thing, you can certainly load it with .50cal explosive ammo. The same goes for .44, .270, 5.56, 9mm, and of course 7.62. Depending on which ammo you load into the weapon, its fire rate, recoil, damage, and magazine size will change. This allows for some crazy combinations and maximum adaptability to each combat situation. Also, our sound guy Peter did an amazing job making each ammo type sound different and punchy!

[h3]“Dragon’s Breath” Sjöqvist[/h3]
Any ammo you use with this weapon (we’ve limited it to buckshot and birdshot, since slugs don’t make a lot of sense for this use case) will be augmented with a magnesium payload, setting everything the pellets hit on fire. This includes machines and the ground, but not foliage, so don’t worry about starting any forest fires. Fire in the hole!

[h3]“Smart Gun” HP5[/h3]
By aiming down sights with this weapon, you can lock onto a specific part on a machine. Any rounds you fire while the lockon is active will automatically adjust their trajectory to fly towards the targeted component. This enables you to maintain maximum destruction even in the most tense situations.

[h2]Skill Point Uncap[/h2]
Over the years, we’ve heard time and time again that our players would like to unlock the full skill tree. Well, now you can! If you reach level 87, you will have earned enough skill points to get every skill. While you’ll still only be able to have one specialization skill active at the same time, you’ll be even more of a threat to the machines.
Don’t worry if you’ve already leveled up past level 31; the earned skill points will be granted retroactively.

[h2]Encumbrance changes[/h2]
With the Showdown update, being overencumbered no longer prevents you from fast traveling. Also, carrying way more than your maximum encumbrance no longer prevents you from moving, instead moving normally now uses stamina.
This is to make inventory management easier and allow for more time spent fighting machines.

[h2]New Companion Armors[/h2]
Two new Companion Armors have been added:
[h3]Threat Armor[/h3]
Threat Armor draws enemy attention away from you and towards your Companion. Just be sure to take some Repair Kits with you so it doesn’t go down!
[h3]Stealth Armor[/h3]
Stealth Armor makes enemy machines less likely to attack your Companion, appointing you the role of Tank and protecting your friend from harm. Well, some harm.

[h2]Additional Companion Cosmetics[/h2]
To go along with the new Armors, we have also added 14 new Companion Skins. Five of them can be found around the new and revamped locations, two drop from normal machines and toolboxes, and the rest are limited to Rival loot pools. Whether you want your metallic friend to blend in in a desert environment (for whatever reason), look like a bucket of rust, or assume the look of a dangerous feline predator, these skins are for you.
Rivals also now drop two new Companion Voice Packs: Small Cat and Big Cat.

[h2]Economy Rebalances[/h2]

• Equipment and Clothes crafting as well as Weapon Augmentation have undergone some major cost changes to accommodate for the new materials and make crafting more intuitive. The amount of materials you get from recycling has also been adjusted.
  
• Machines now drop ammo based on the weapons the player is using instead of the machine’s tier and class. Based on the region the looted Machine spawned in, there is also a multiplier that applies to the amount of Ammo that drops.
  
• Note that to incentivise crafting, Machines will only drop basic ammo types like FMJ and Hollow Point. Other types have to be crafted.
  
• To provide you with more space to store the new crafting materials, you can now upgrade your Recycling Station to level 10, which increases the storage capacity to 1600. This has been a highly requested change and you may now hoard resources once more, until you hit the new limit and ask us for another increase. We’ll be waiting.
  

[h2]N16 Model Overhaul[/h2]
Old Model New Model

After listening to your feedback around the model of the N16, we realised that it wasn’t quite up to our standards. The Showdown Update contains a completely overhauled model for all five tiers of the N16. Enjoy!

[h2]Collectable Player Emotes[/h2]
We’ve hidden nine new dance emotes as collectable VHS tapes around the new locations. Find them all and start a dance party like Östertörn has never seen before.

[h2]Additional Vehicle Colors[/h2]

If there is one thing we’ve always wanted to add, it’s purple and pink vehicle skins. Well, now they’re here! Get yours at your local Rival or Tyrant and thank us later.

[h2]Design Changes[/h2]

• The firing sounds for the AG5, Möller PP, Klaucke, and silenced COM10 weapons has been improved to a snappier version. Pew pew!
  
• The Minigun now has a brief windup sound before it starts to fire. Yes, we know it doesn’t have that in real life, but it just sounds so cool. This is audio only, so it doesn't change the performance of the weapon.
  
• The 5 crown version of the AI-76 has been visually updated to look more in line with the progression of the fist four tiers.
  
• Remote Hacking now plays a nice little sound to indicate whether it was successful or not.
  
• Text chat has been visually improved. The reason for this is that we wanted it to be prettier.
  
• Players can now respawn at Field Radios.
  

[h3]Machines[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that caused Hunters to disappear randomly
  
• Fixed the Vulture freezing and becoming inactive during combat
  
• Fixed the Vulture not correctly entering the next combat stage by deploying reinforcements and becoming invulnerable
  
• Fixed the Vulture prioritizing swedish machines over the player
  
• Fixed Apoc Tanks and Wolves’ Cluster Mines not deploying correctly
  

[h3]Missions[/h3]

• Fixed scripted Runners not spawning during “The Hellmouth”
  
• Fixed the Tylöveden Base Assault not appearing
  
• Prevented turrets from continuing to shoot at players after being destroyed during the “Outpost Sabotage” Procedural Mission
  

[h3]Companion[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where the Companion would take too long to spawn after being placed down
  

[h3]Challenges[/h3]

• Fixed the “Off the Grid” challenge not counting properly
  
• Fixed the achievement “Go-Getter” not counting properly
  
• Fixed the “Skilled Spotter” Augmentation challenge not counting properly
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Fixed item icons not displaying when scrolling through the storage box fast
  
• Fixed a bug where multiple worlds would have the same map progression
  
• Fixed a “no title provided” message that sometimes popped up when hovering over another player on the map
  
• Fixed the player icon disappearing from the map when zooming in
  
• Fixed the challenge screen not correctly showing progress made
  
• Fixed the character preview becoming invisible in the “Profile” and “Team” tabs
  
• Fixed an issue that caused pickup notifications to appear multiple times in the loot feed
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to place a field radio on themselves in tight spaces
  
• Prevented Base Assault turrets from shooting through walls
  

[h3]Sound[/h3]

• Fixed sound effects playing multiple times when a Base Assault levels up
  
• Fixed a missing sound when recycling
  

[h3]Stability[/h3]

• Fixed multiple crashes during fights
  
• Many minor and edge case crash fixes
  
• Fixed an instance of players loading infinitely in multiplayer
  

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• Introduced various rendering optimizations
  
• Reduced FPS drops during combat
  
• Fixed FPS drops in multiple locations
  

Ever since we released Generation Zero almost six years ago, we’ve been working tirelessly to refine its successes and improve upon its shortcomings.
We added new Machines, Bosses, repeatable missions, vehicles, and weapons. To make the world more detailed and even more engaging, we revamped hundreds of locations and reworked the mission flow. On top of all of this, we kept improving the performance and stability, leading to both of them being at an all time high now (due in no small part to your help!).

As a show of appreciation for the thousands of hours of work, an unending well of passion, and a laser-eyed focus on the vision of what’s ahead that went into the game, we’d like to ask you to nominate Generation Zero for the “Labor of Love” Steam Award.♥️
It would mean the world to us as a Development Team to see the game we love so much up for a Steam Award and we think that as a community, we can come together and get it there.
That would be a hell of a way to lead up the last content this game will see, don’t you think?

Regardless, we are incredibly thankful for your support and we’re excited to have you play the Showdown Update soon.

With love,
The Generation Zero Dev Team

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Greetings, Survivors!

It’s been a while since we released the August 2024 Update, and many of you have been asking what’s next. Well, we’re here to answer that question today.

Over the past six years, we’ve added tons of new features and content to Generation Zero; Base Building introduced a home to customize and defend, Soviet Machines joined the fray as a new faction, the Companion helped us stand up to the enemy, and the Vulture posed a formidable new threat.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
In turn, you’ve spent the last six years destroying machines, hunting Rivals, and keeping the Resistance alive. We’re truly honored that you’ve accompanied us on this journey for so long. Everything you’ve achieved has been leading up to this point.
With this in mind, we’ve arrived at a special and decidedly bittersweet moment:

It’s with the utmost love and tremendous pride that we announce that we are now working on the last update for Generation Zero.

We feel now is the right time to finalize our vision for our beloved game and give it the sendoff it deserves. So, without further ado, let’s talk about this last hurrah, our magnum opus – the Showdown Update.

In the Showdown Update, we are concluding the story arc that we’ve been building towards throughout the main missions and in-game lore. The story of Östertörn is reaching its third act in this mysterious, intense, explosive finale and the Resistance will need you once more! Here’s a small sneak peek:


Most of the Showdown Update will take place in a new area that you haven’t been to before. This new area will not be as sprawling as Himfjäll, but it will give us the space needed to tell the last part of our narrative. You can look forward to exploring new terrains with a unique feel and many bits of environmental storytelling, just like you’re used to! In preparation, we advise you to gather all the Soviet Nesting Dolls collectables and catch up on the attached lore.

Concluding the story in this new location is not the only focus of this update, of course; we’re working on including as many bits of community feedback as we can, too. We’ll be adding three new Experimental weapons to round out the catalog of base game weapons that have EXP versions. To allow you to unlock all skill upgrades and complete the endgame experience, we’re uncapping the skill points. We’ve also been working on new cosmetics, which you will be able to earn in various ways. Lastly, as always, we’re introducing more Quality of Life improvements and fixing lots of bugs.

As you can see, there's a lot in store for you as you experience the conclusion to your journey in the game. There are a few more surprises awaiting you in Östertörn, but those will be for you to discover yourselves.

The Alpine Unrest and FNIX Rising story expansions are not required to complete the new missions, but having played them will provide more context to the story. The narrative will revolve around the Resistance, FNIX, and some characters you already know and love.



As we get closer to launch, we’ll talk more about the update, but for now just be advised to keep a lookout on our channels for more hints and, eventually, the release date.

Generation Zero has evolved so much over the last six years and we can’t wait to experience this final chapter together with all of you, our players. Thank you.

The Generation Zero Dev Team

[h2]Questions you might have[/h2]

Will the Showdown update include a paid DLC?
No. Everything in it is a free update for everyone who owns the base game.

What happens after the update?
Our dev team will move on to different projects within Avalanche Studios Group. Our community spaces will remain active and supported for the foreseeable future.

Will I still be able to play multiplayer?
Yes. GZ’s multiplayer mode is peer-to-peer hosted, meaning it doesn’t require servers from us to connect to your friends.

Is GZ2 in development?
We are not developing any sequels at this point, but there are definitely more stories to tell in the GZ universe and a return to the IP in the future is not off the table.

Where can I find information and support going forward?
Any communications will still happen via Discord, the GZ forums, our website, and our social media channels.

Will the game still be available for new players to download and play?
Yes.

Can we expect any community events or activities in the future?
Yes! We will continue to care for and highlight our amazing community every chance we get.

Will there still be technical support for the game?
Our customer support will stay active throughout 2025 and if we decide to discontinue it after that, we’ll let you know well in advance.

How will bug fixes and patches be handled moving forward?
There are currently no plans for further patches, but we’ll be closely monitoring our channels following the release of the Showdown Update to determine whether a hotfix is necessary.

Will you add mod support with this update?
While we realize how much fun and longevity mods can add to a game, officially supporting modding is sadly not just a switch we can flip. It involves a complicated process of both our programming and legal teams to make sure that it's done right and with minimal risk. That's why we will not officially support modding.