DEAD GRID - 1.2 HOTFIXES
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AFTERMATH: While playing Aftermath, mercs show an incorrect number of remaining weapon training points (not class skill points). This also affects the full respec of invested points. Mercs that have ranked up in Aftermath since the launch of 1.2 should now automatically show their correct unspent points, according to the rank.
The new enemy status "Leaking" damages the enemy based on their total remaining HP, but also unintentionally restores a small amount of HP.
A few players have reported being unable to continue to the next turn in combat, not tied to specific missions. Added extra validation for potential potential race conditions triggered by combos that could cause a soft-lock.
I was able to finally reproduce the turn soft-lock issue tied to the new character Sam. Killing with Sam (only Sam) had a less than 10% chance to cause an internal error, which made it hard to find.
If you played on build 1.2.23 and noticed the skill Assist not triggering, it was disabled for 1 build while I investigated the soft-lock. The skill is back in rotation now.
Added a small UI feedback icon to the END TURN button while the game is busy performing turn actions and the button cannot be pressed. You would see it while mercs are attacking.
Eliminating an enemy while in a 3D kill cam with an MG can cause the 3D view not to close at the end of the attack. This issue was tied to the recent changes in 1.2 where MG can rapidly switch targets on every shot.
Trader item sorting by Name is sorted in reversed order, should be alphabetical (visual bug only).
Sorry for the hotfix spam the past couple of days. 1.2 had a lot of new changes. I will look into a public experimental branch for the next major release, so there is more QA time outside of the Discord group.
Thanks for all the bug reports!
Greetings Mercs!
I'm excited to release another major update for Dead Grid, packed with new systems, game modes, items, visual upgrades, and quality-of-life improvements. Let's take a look at everything that's new.
To celebrate the launch, Dead Grid is also available at 40% off for a limited time.
A new melee weapon type has been added to the game, called Martial Arts.
Martial Arts weapons are not items held in hand, instead they change the fighting style of your mercs and behave similar to gadgets, but equipped into the melee weapon slot.
Martial Arts cards have no durability and cannot break in combat.
Martial Arts cards have no item level and cannot be upgraded in the Armory. Instead, their progression is tied to triggering Dojo combos.
The quality (color) of Martial Arts cards can be upgraded in the workbench, same as gadgets.
Around 30 new Martial Arts weapon cards have added, including unique variants.
Around 20+ new animations have been added with hand to hand combat in mind.
Martial Arts weapon training has been reworked, no longer focusing on unarmed combat.
A new camp room is now available, called Dojo.
Upgrading the room allows you to customize defensive combos.
These combos are triggered in combat during the enemy's turn.
In addition to the combos, Dojo offers 4 abilities, upgraded by triggering your combos.
Dojo combos rely on some RNG, but strategic aggro management plays a part in how often these combos can be triggered, especially when using shields.
The visual effects of Dojo animations can be fully disabled in game settings.
A new interface has been added to the camp's locker room.
Resting mercs in squad can be retired from the squad, returning them to the new recruits list. Revenant mercs can also be retired this way. This was a frequently requested feature.
Retired mercs can be reinstated (recruited) at no cost.
Renaming and muting merc voices has been migrated to this new interface.
Every merc now comes with 3 outfits for a total of 48 (across 16 mercs).
The third outfit for each merc is tied to the cosmetic DLC: Zombie Funeral.
If you already own the DLC, the extra outfits are automatically unlocked. Thanks for your support!
A new fully voiced Commando merc named Sam, full of personality!
Sam can be chosen during the new game setup or randomly recruited by Ramon.
There are now 16 playable mercs in the game, including 3 Revenants.
Brie is now a second trader in camp, offering her stolen goods for sale.
Brie is greedy, so expect the prices to be inflated, but you have the option to get stolen items back as her stock stays consistent between missions.
Added 12 new voice emotes for Brie.
Brie's base steal chance has been raised from 75% to 85% and can still be reduced with intel upgrades and gadgets.
Brie's pool of items has been expanded with more rares and uniques.
Brie is now discovered at the Supermarket, swapped with Clyde at PVS Express.
Increased the max rank from 5 to 6 which now offers a greater discount on new recruits.
Rebalanced discounts per rank from 12% to 15% for a maximum of 90%
Klaus' ability to lead away unaware enemies no longer triggers on hordes.
Note: The 5 horde missions are designed to be a single encounter where unaware enemies play a bigger role of noise management. Removing 1/2 of the unaware threat made Klaus too powerful at these locations.
The color of the hit points (HP) stat now has 3 states instead of 2 (green or red).
This came directly from your feedback and I really liked it.
A new enemy status spawns on enemies with very low remaining hit points.
The threshold depends on the total hit points of the enemy.
Bonus experience granted to the merc landing a killing blow against these enemies.
This is similar to bleeding where hit points are lost at the end of turn, but used for undead.
Critical hits from firearms puncture the flesh of undead causing them to start leaking.
The chance to cause this status effect varies for different firearms.
Enemy takes -85% damage from explosions.
Randomly applied to non-boss enemies.
2 bosses are scripted to always spawn with this status Estelle and Subject Zero.
Completely revamped this old gadget, previously tied to reputation.
Chance to grant bonus Intel points for completed missions.
The chance is increased with quality (color) upgrades of the gadget.
Earned bonus points can be seen on the mission details screen where bonus is more than 0.
A new gadget to give Jack additional shots on a mission.
Added a chance to cause enemies to start leaking (new status).
This gadget also works on Revenant mercs.
Shots from Machine Guns now have a 50% to select a random target.
This mechanic can be reversed with unique cards or the new Stunburst skill.
Dev Notes: MG weapons have always been difficult to balance, purely due to the amount of shots they spray on a single attack. This change puts MG into a more specialized category which keeps SMG and AR relevant into the late phases of the game where MG starts to drop more often.
The kill has been reworked to focus on MG weapons, matching its weapon art.
MG shots focus on the primary target instead of random targets.
Randomly shows up at the start of player's turn, similar to Street Cred.
Very long cooldown, 50 turns, but can be reduced with skill Multiple Solutions.
On challenge Lone Wolf, this skill would grant a 3rd turn in sequence.
New board gore effects showing on cards taking damage from melee, ranged and explosives.
Many new sound effects of gore splats and blood drops.
These effects can be completely disabled in game settings.
5 new random events, 3 help the player, 2 help the enemy.
Unlucky Explosives, Full of Holes, Abandoned Frags, Unwelcome Friends, and Focused Inspiration.
A new option is now available in Game Settings - General to enable permadeath for mercs.
This option works on any game difficulty or challenge mode and can be disabled at any time.
Losing a mercs in combat removes them from the mission squad and returns their gear.
These mercs are then permanently marked as DECEASED.
Deceased mercs cannot be added to the mission squad or trained.
Deceased mercs can be removed from the camp roster using the new locker room interface.
Dev Note: The game was never designed to be a roguelike experience with hardcore elements, so this mode does not prevent you from using the save system to reload previous saves and replay missions again. That's entirely up to you. It simply grants a way to flag mercs lost in combat from being played again.
As usual, this mode just offers more ways to experience the game for seasoned players.
Quick tip, going silent will greatly increase you chances here.
There are now 7 distinct challenge modes in the game.
This mode allows you to repeat the campaign with your existing squad and gear.
Aftermath becomes available after you complete the campaign on any difficulty and can be started from the camp's garage room which shows more information of the rules.
The campaign can be repeated up to 10 times, using the Aftermath mechanic. The enemies get stronger, hit harder and show up in greater numbers, but your squad keeps pushing as well.
Aftermath can also be started on a any challenge mode with a completed campaign.
Merc's Gadget slot now unlocks at rank 3 instead of 4, same as the Accessory slot.
Added keyboard hotkeys for scrolling card details in combat, using the Up/Down arrows.
This was requested by players using devices without a mouse wheel.
Slightly rebalanced prior training points for all mercs.
Reworked attack animation delays to speed up enemy turns by around 30%.
This is applies to enraged enemies using multiple swipes per turn.
Sell All Ammo / Valuables buttons now always appear when viewing the trader tab. Previously, the buttons only appeared with ammo or valuables in stash, many players missed the feature.
Improved the art of the neutral skill Silent Tactics.
Many small optimizations for visual effects and UI elements.
unarmed: -10 noise, changed from -20
martial arts: -10 noise, changed from -20
blunt/sharp: -10 noise, changed from -15
shield strike: -10 noise, changed from -5
bows/crossbows: -15 noise, changed from -10
silenced firearms: -2 per shot, changed from -5
Notes: There are still many additional ways to remove noise with skills, class abilities, clearing bodies, gadgets, etc. This makes silent combat fairly easy to achieve. These balance changes are based on my extensive review of different play styles.
12 new achievements (Fame) have been added for a total of 370.
A few broken achievements have been fixed, listed in bug fixes below.
Fixed a rare game crash which occurred in camp after opening mission details on slower CPUs.
Fixed game errors tied to Revenant character models (not game breaking).
Switching rooms in the middle of a camp upgrade animation results in incorrect supplies spent.
Scripted weapons can sometimes be randomly found as boss drops. example: Slade's Custom, Angry Grandpa, Mother Trucker, Ned's Longbow
Master Negotiator (Ramon) achievement cannot be unlocked. The achievement has also been adjusted to the new max rank of 6/6.
Achievement You Know Jack unlocks at 21 spent intel points, should be 20.
Achievement Prison Guard cannot be unlocked. Achievement progression was not being tracked for this mission when returning to camp.
Multiple kills made with SMG shots on the same attack only track 1 kill by achievements.
Tactician skill Black Belt is incorrectly applying the initial melee damage buff on turn 1.
Waste Disposal gadget equipped on Revenants (from a legacy bug) can still be triggered. This is a non-Revenant gadget, also stated in card details.
I'll be keeping a close eye on the balance of the new systems, weapons, and Aftermath. Please post your bug reports and feedback in Discord or the forums.
If you are enjoying the game, please consider leaving a Steam review.
I'm the solo-developer on the game, so my marketing time is limited and your reviews greatly help with further development. Thank you and see you in Pine Valley!
--Paul
Greetings Mercs!
I'm excited to announce that Dead Grid 1.2 is scheduled to launch on Thursday, July 30 at 8:00 AM PST.
In addition to the features already revealed in my last preview post, I've managed to add even more content, items, animations, sound effects, and quality-of-life improvements.
As usual, I'll be posting the full patch notes alongside the release, covering the update in detail.
Dead Grid 1.2 is fully compatible with existing saves. For those of you who wish to stay on the current 1.1 version of the game after the release on Thursday, there is now an optional branch.
branch name: cu09 - 1.1.5 (March 2026)
See you on launch day!
--Paul
Greetings Mercs!
This is a preview post for the upcoming 1.2 update to Dead Grid. The full release patch notes will go into greater detail, so this post is mainly intended as a progress and news update on the current state of development.
After completing the campaign, a new option becomes available at camp: AFTERMATH. This New Game+ mode lets you replay the entire campaign with your existing squad and arsenal. Locations, survivors, and skills must all be rediscovered and relearned. Instead of gaining skills from leveling up mercs, skill points are awarded at the end of each mission (day). Additional rules and modifiers will be revealed in the final patch notes.
A new room is being added to the game that allows players to create reaction-based combos, activated during the enemy's turn. The mechanic is entirely optional and is not required to complete any portion of the game.
You’ll be able to customize up to five combos built around the moves: DODGE, PARRY, BLOCK, and GET HIT. When triggered during combat, these combos will grant a bonus Dojo-specific ability on your next turn. The Dojo system introduces 6 powerful new abilities that grow stronger as you successfully trigger more combos.
Strategic aggro and gear management play a major role in triggering these combos effectively, especially when using shields.
More details on the system and its new skill rewards will be revealed in the final patch notes.
A new merc management screen is now part of the CAMP interface. This screen allows you to rename, mute, retire, and customize the outfits of your mercs.
A total of 48 outfits will be included with the 1.2 update. Revenants are included.
You'll be able to remove mercs from your squad tab. This was a frequently requested feature in feedback.
I’ve done a significant amount of work redrawing the animated gore sprites that spawn when enemies take damage on the board (not the 3D kill cam). This overhaul was not only aimed at improving the memory management of the many effects in combat, but also at adding a much greater variety of hand-drawn pixel animations. A lot of my inspiration comes from older arcade games such as Mortal Kombat 1 and 2, where the sprite based gore effects were intentionally exaggerated.
Brie will now serve as a second trader, offering her stolen goods at a sizable markup. Brie is now discovered earlier in the campaign after completing the Supermarket. While these prices are expensive, her inventory does not refresh, giving you a reliable way to purchase stolen items at any time.
A new fully voiced Commando merc, named Sam. This merc comes with 3 outfits.
This will trigger when an enemy is left standing with a few remaining hit points after an attack. There is a small mechanic tied to the status effect. Discover as you play :)
New gadgets are coming, here is one I can share now.
In addition to the new content, a typical list of bug fixes and performance optimizations will be included in 1.2. I've also been working on localizing the game to different languages, but this is going to take some time (beyond version 1.2) due to the amount of dynamic text in the game tied to skills and items.
I’m now in the final phase of development of 1.2, but need a bit more time to work on fixing various reported bugs. I’ll be announcing the release date in a separate post, so stay tuned.
I’ve seen many of you pick up the cosmetic DLC - Zombie Funeral, thank you for the support! Please consider leaving a short review for both the main game and the DLC. Cheers!
--Paul
Hello Mercs!
This update focuses on adding more quality of life features and a bit of new content. With the Spring Sale approaching, I also wanted to improve the intro tutorial to provide a better experience for new players coming into the game.
I’ve decided to split my originally planned larger update into two releases to avoid a long gap between updates. The next update will focus more on new juicy content.
Modifies the Burning mechanic so it no longer deals damage at the end of turns.
Enemies take increased damage from all sources.
The damage bonus scales with their Burning percentage.
After watching various streams of people playing the game, I noticed repeated requests for a way to skip the three major tutorials on subsequent playthroughs.
Introduced a new step to the new game setup that allows players to skip tutorials.
First-time players will not see this screen, just as they don't see settings for Shared Lab.
Damage is now based on the highest damaging weapon in squad, similar to Jack.
The chosen weapon is calculated at the start of mission and is shown in Shadow's details.
Shadow Sniper now always targets an enemy with the lowest remaining hit points.
If no enemies are present, Shadow Sniper no longer fires and generates noise.
Reputation gained now increases with mission repeats.
The base value is still 5 reputation on the first play of any mission.
Playing Street Cred now shows a visual indicator on each merc in play with how much rep was gained.
Increased total HP gain from 10% to 15%.
This ability now also removes active bleeding on all mercs in play.
Playing Toughness now shows a visual indicator on each merc and how much HP was gained.
Klaus with invested Intel distracts enemies at any non-horde location, not just the locations he is assigned to. This was incorrectly stated in his ability details and has been adjusted.
Distracted enemies are now a range instead of a constant number based on the Intel upgrades.
This range increases with Intel spent on Klaus and is rolled on each individual encounter.
Dev Note: The main reason for this balance change is that Klaus provides a powerful ability that can trivialize late-game locations by removing much of the enemy threat caused by noise. This is especially apparent in horde missions with only a single encounter, where players are meant to choose between going silent or loud, without noise carrying over from another encounter.
Propane Tank is now redrawn into hand if played on a full board of enemies.
Dynamite is now redrawn into hand if played on a full board of enemies.
AP is still consumed, but the abilities are not wasted.
The intro mission (which can now be skipped) has been reworked with a more consistent look.
The mission now also contains fewer enemies so it's even faster to complete.
2 achievements for the new challenge mode.
2 achievements for the turn ability Shadow Sniper.
3 achievements for the turn ability Street Cred.
1 achievement for Pristine quality upgrades.
Added unique shield variants of Barbed Fence, Metal Fence and Plated Fence shields.
Enemy status "Group Endurance" now only applies to Rank 10+ enemies. This status effect can cause some unlucky early encounters before the player has a chance to gear up. Rank 10+ enemies begin appearing at Roadblock.
During combat, the red number in brackets before the location now indicates the total mission repeats instead of the enemy threat. This number is not shown on the first visit to the location.
Playing Surprise Attack now shows a visual indicator on the merc performing the attack.
Playing Quick Break now shows a visual indicator on all the mercs in play.
Small game performance optimizations during combat.
Flipped DLC card frames in Game Settings so by default the original art is used.
Improved the terminal-style location list to indicate mission unlock requirements.
Fixed merc frames not being set to a darker tone at the end of turn (visual bug).
Fixed merc cards with pending actions not showing a blue glow around the card frame (visual bug).
Fixed enemy cards not showing a red glow when attacking or being targeted (visual bug).
Fixed blue glow occasionally remaining on mercs during the enemy turn (visaul bug).
Random event spawning barricades can sometimes block the game from showing Area Cleared with no enemies remaining. Phased out this random event for a future rework.
Fixed Barbed Fence Shield cannot be upgraded from Fine-Tuned (blue) to Exceptional (purple) due to invalid game data.
Fixed Metal Fence Shield showing an incorrect 3D model (Plated Fence Shield).
Achievements "Shopper's Paradise" and "Tools of the Trade" are not unlocked for some players with full upgrades to the rooms. This was an issue in earlier 1.0 builds where the achievements were not configured correctly on Steam. Added an extra check to unlock these achievements when visiting the related rooms.
Player could bypass the new character selection screen before the UI finished loading, resulting in no merc spawning during the tutorial. Adjusted the UI to block input until the character selection is fully loaded.
Fixed an issue preventing ammo from being drawn while using a controller during the tutorial mission that teaches the ammo stash draw.
Mouse cursor was not hidden while using a controller on non-steam deck devices. When controller input is detected, the cursor should be auto-hidden, recentered to the middle with hovered over elements deselected. Moving the mouse again should reveal the cursor back.
Reputation gain from gadget German Phrases was not granted when Klaus distracted unaware undead. This should now be fixed and combat log should also indicate how much reputation was gained.
Improved save storage validation for first-time players. This sometimes caused errors tied to achievements not being correctly stored before completing the initial tutorial where the first save is created.
Fixed small typos in card details.
Thanks for all the reports! Please continue to submit feedback on the forums or in Discord.
--Paul
Hello Mercs!
I've been chipping away on the next big content update 9 to Dead Grid. I'll share a preview as soon as I get close the release. This week, I’m pushing a maintenance patch with some bug fixes, additional balance tuning and some quality of life features to the Armory.
This build includes support for the cosmetic DLC, available now. The DLC does not grant combat power.
Replaced the STRONG ENEMY splash animation on enemies coming into play with 3 new animations matching the enemy types, STRONG, ELITE, BOSS. This should make it easier to spot specific enemy types while working on Jack's assignments.
Added a sorting option to the Armory cards view. Sort by item level, damage, durability, ammo, condition, and sell value.
Reduced the AP cost of "First Aid Kit", "Home Medkit", "Combat Medkit", and "Hospital Medkit" from 3 to 2 AP. Trauma Kits still cost 3 AP.
Increased the chance of showing machine guns (MG) for sale by the trader.
Challenge Lab of the Dead - reduced increased enemy HP from +50% to +25%.
Challenge Aim for the Head - removed the extra enemy HP.
With the last patch I introduced a drastic HP scaling nerf to the mid and late stages of the game, affecting higher difficulty levels.
After gathering further feedback and testing myself, I've made tuning adjustments to factor in powerful explosion damage that players are able to train late game.
Once again, the scaling changes start to kick in with rank 20+ enemies, at the Hospital. Here are some examples:
DIFFICULTY
SAMPLE STRONG ENEMY
EASY NORMAL VETERAN
No change since build 1.0.38.
APOCALYPSE
RANK: 26, HP (1.0.31): 1452, HP (1.0.38): 1390, HP (1.0.42): 1405
RANK: 47, HP (1.0.31): 3432, HP (1.0.38): 2724, HP (1.0.42): 2886
RANK: 72, HP (1.0.31): 5195, HP (1.0.38): 3170, HP (1.0.42): 3586
RANK: 84, HP (1.0.31): 6348, HP (1.0.38): 3381, HP (1.0.42): 3957
RANK: 90, HP (1.0.31): 7291, HP (1.0.38): 3621, HP (1.0.42): 4313
EXTINCTION
RANK: 26, HP (1.0.31): 2785, HP (1.0.38): 2609, HP (1.0.42): 2666
RANK: 47, HP (1.0.31): 6767, HP (1.0.38): 4785, HP (1.0.42): 5371
RANK: 72, HP (1.0.31): 12830, HP (1.0.38): 6114, HP (1.0.42): 7827
RANK: 84, HP (1.0.31): 16168, HP (1.0.38): 6283, HP (1.0.42): 8610
RANK: 90, HP (1.0.31): 18784, HP (1.0.38): 6574, HP (1.0.42): 9329
Challenge mode guide box has references of legacy ranking system phased out in 1.0.
Last dialog of the region tutorial is not hidden when switching away from the region map view (visual bug).
3D models for Metal Shield and Plated Metal Shield are not centered when viewed in Gear details.
Achievement "Final Experiment" does not unlock when eliminating Patient Zero on Extinction.
Leader skill Vulnerability can get applied to adjacent eliminated enemies (bodies).
Cannot target locked containers with a lock pick consumable from hand while using a controller.
Consumable cards cost double AP to play from hand when using a controller.
Shielded merc getting infected by a random event (Rat Bite) loses shield durability, in addition to HP. Shield durability should not be affected by Infection, the health pool should be reduced.
Unique shield "Chia Lid" is missing a damage reflect mod.
Unique assault rifle Pendulum is missing a scope damage mod.
Weapons equipped on Revenant mercs show up in the Sharp weapons list, in addition to the Revenant tab. This is a legacy feature from Early Access, before Revenants had their own tab.
Upgrading an item with multiple ranks costs more points than it should. I introduced this bug while making balance changes during Early Access, a big thanks for the reports on Steam!
Here are some examples of the expected upgrade cost across multiple levels:
Upgrading a Sledge from level 5 to 6 costs 5 blunt armory points.
Upgrading a Sledge from level 6 to 7 costs 6 points.
Upgrading a Sledge from level 5 to 7 costs 11 points (2 levels).
Upgrading a Sledge from level 5 to 8 costs 18 points (3 levels).
Thanks for all the reports! Please continue to submit feedback on the forums or in Discord.
--Paul
Lab Armory selection UI now shows the bonus loot level for each weapon group where points have been spent.
Added mouse wheel support to change pages on the Loot Haul screen when returning to camp.
Ammo drawn from a merc's bag is now directly drawn into your hand instead of the ammo stash.
Added more loot selection options to the Trash Bin area object at the location Stash House.
Slightly reduced prior training points in Explosives for all Tactician mercs by a few points.
Improved the new player guide for the Recruit tab of Gear Management, before locating Ramon.
Reworked all Ned's assignment rewards to offer a variety of different shields.
Changed the spray damage to be based on remaining enemy HP instead of total HP.
Reduced the total sprays from 3 to 2 with one additional spray on a crit for a max of 3 sprays.
The sprays reduction does not affect how enemies are set on fire.
Flamethrower armory points now have a chance to drop on each spray instead of each kill.
Added a Flame Armory Mods book that can show up at the start of every turn.
DEV NOTES:
I've been gathering lots of feedback on the flamethrowers being overtuned for the late stages of the game. I recognize this and agree with the feedback, but also want to experiment with tuning the weapon over several patches. Flamethrowers were always designed to be used on high HP enemies, but I don't want them to be the go to weapon as well. This patch introduces some changes that I'll continue to gather feedback for.
The base damage of Aimed Shot is now 1/2 of the maximum damage instead of a flat 150%.
This only affects ranged weapons with the Aimed Shot ability (sniper rifles, bows, crossbows).
Note: Aimed Shot damage is increased by upgrading the weapon's item level.
Kill Zone has been reworked to no longer grant Aimed Shot to all mercs in play.
Kill Zone now boosts the damage of non-flamethrower ranged attacks by 15%.
Cooldown has been reduced from 22 to 20 turns.
A new turn skill similar to Kill Zone, but grants 15% melee damage to all mercs in play.
Revenant mercs gain 15% damage to each hand instead.
Jack's damage is now based on the highest damaging ranged weapon of any merc in the mission squad, not just the primary merc. This was a frequent request in feedback.
Increased Jack's starting accuracy from 70% to 85%, further boosted by +2% per intel.
Increased Jack's damage boost per intel from +5% to +10%.
Flamethrowers are still excluded from Jack's damage pool.
Completely reworked the mechanic of the Walkie Talkie gadget and its unique variants.
Walkie Talkie now grants a chance to spawn every merc in mission squad into combat on turn 1 of the first encounter.
The gadget can be equipped on any merc in mission squad and the chance stacks from multiple Walkie Talkies.
Combat log reflects the total stacked chance and which merc was able to arrive early using this mechanic.
Chance to retain Aimed Shot after scoring a crit with an Aimed Shot.
Precision Helm comes in 5 conditions (colors).
Doubled the trigger chance of copying drawn consumables from bag.
Degraded backpack now starts with a 10% instead of 5% and can be upgraded to a 60% chance.
Added new in-card status effects for mercs performing special actions, similar to Frag Out.
The new effects are: Frag Stash, Molotov, Explosive, Smoke, Sashimi, Execute, Shield Taunt and a more. I will potentially expand it further in future patches.
I've been paying very close attention to the feedback of enemy scaling in the late stages of the game. Many players have reported the early game feels a lot smoother, especially on the harder difficulty modes. The enemy scaling on the second half of the region was definitely overtuned for the 1.0 launch. Therefore, I've made some changes to make the harder missions more lucrative to repeat.
This patch introduces a new power curve for enemy hit point scaling affecting the mid to late stages of the game. The goal is to reduce the aggressive rise in hit points while making non-burn damage and non-flamethrower weapons more viable.
Mid game starts around rank 20 enemies, which is typically at the Hospital. The early game should stay unaffected.
Here are some examples of the new enemy HP numbers:
NORMAL
ENEMY RANK: 29, OLD SCALED HP: 406, NEW SCALED HP: 391
ENEMY RANK: 30, OLD SCALED HP: 360, NEW SCALED HP: 346
ENEMY RANK: 44, OLD SCALED HP: 880, NEW SCALED HP: 786
ENEMY RANK: 55, OLD SCALED HP: 1320, NEW SCALED HP: 1108
ENEMY RANK: 62, OLD SCALED HP: 2232, NEW SCALED HP: 1798
ENEMY RANK: 85, OLD SCALED HP: 2550, NEW SCALED HP: 1778
ENEMY RANK: 94, OLD SCALED HP: 3102, NEW SCALED HP: 2038
VETERAN
ENEMY RANK: 41, OLD SCALED HP: 1308, NEW SCALED HP: 1077
ENEMY RANK: 75, OLD SCALED HP: 4505, NEW SCALED HP: 2488
ENEMY RANK: 84, OLD SCALED HP: 4710, NEW SCALED HP: 2319
ENEMY RANK: 94, OLD SCALED HP: 4738, NEW SCALED HP: 2045
ENEMY RANK: 94, OLD SCALED HP: 4738, NEW SCALED HP: 2045
APOCALYPSE
ENEMY RANK: 26, OLD SCALED HP: 968, NEW SCALED HP: 878
ENEMY RANK: 50, OLD SCALED HP: 3557, NEW SCALED HP: 1979
ENEMY RANK: 73, OLD SCALED HP: 6347, NEW SCALED HP: 2036
ENEMY RANK: 88, OLD SCALED HP: 12138, NEW SCALED HP: 2649
ENEMY RANK: 93, OLD SCALED HP: 11955, NEW SCALED HP: 2286
EXTINCTION
ENEMY RANK: 30, OLD SCALED HP: 1972, NEW SCALED HP: 1528
ENEMY RANK: 51, OLD SCALED HP: 7285, NEW SCALED HP: 2920
ENEMY RANK: 72, OLD SCALED HP: 21383, NEW SCALED HP: 4034
ENEMY RANK: 86, OLD SCALED HP: 31104, NEW SCALED HP: 3430
ENEMY RANK: 93, OLD SCALED HP: 31391, NEW SCALED HP: 2625
With the new hit point curve, I've also included a balance change to enemy damage, especially for the harder difficulty modes. Once again, the change starts to be more apparent mid game with rank 20+ enemies, at the Hospital.
The other reason for this damage balance is to also put more focus on using consumables, upgraded shields and the use of threat management. Many players run 500+ durability shields where enemies dealing 10 damage per swing pose very little threat.
Here are some examples of the new enemy damage numbers:
NORMAL
ENEMY RANK: 12, OLD DAMAGE: 5, NEW DAMAGE: 5 (no change)
ENEMY RANK: 49, OLD DAMAGE: 5, NEW DAMAGE: 6
ENEMY RANK: 75, OLD DAMAGE: 7, NEW DAMAGE: 9
ENEMY RANK: 93, OLD DAMAGE: 7, NEW DAMAGE: 9
VETERAN
ENEMY RANK: 7, OLD DAMAGE: 3, NEW DAMAGE: 4
ENEMY RANK: 29, OLD DAMAGE: 3, NEW DAMAGE: 4
ENEMY RANK: 72, OLD DAMAGE: 8, NEW DAMAGE: 11
ENEMY RANK: 88, OLD DAMAGE: 8, NEW DAMAGE: 12
APOCALYPSE
ENEMY RANK: 7, OLD DAMAGE: 6, NEW DAMAGE: 9
ENEMY RANK: 18, OLD DAMAGE: 6, NEW DAMAGE: 9
ENEMY RANK: 72, OLD DAMAGE: 9, NEW DAMAGE: 15
ENEMY RANK: 87, OLD DAMAGE: 9, NEW DAMAGE: 16
ENEMY RANK: 91, OLD DAMAGE: 9, NEW DAMAGE: 16
EXTINCTION
ENEMY RANK: 8, OLD DAMAGE: 2, NEW DAMAGE: 6
ENEMY RANK: 17, OLD DAMAGE: 8, NEW DAMAGE: 12
ENEMY RANK: 50, OLD DAMAGE: 8, NEW DAMAGE: 13
ENEMY RANK: 74, OLD DAMAGE: 10, NEW DAMAGE: 19
ENEMY RANK: 93, OLD DAMAGE: 10, NEW DAMAGE: 20
Merc pending actions turn alert option cannot be disabled in Game Settings.
Merc in play blocks the view of another merc at location Bunker of Rot.
Card details for weapons with a single shot or swing (melee, sniper, shotgun, bow) should not show the number of attacks (x1).
In Gear Management, hovering over a resting merc with a full squad plays a small alert sound.
Challenge "Lab of the Dead" incorrectly states enemies spawn with +0 base damage, should be +2.
New Intel reminder status message is not removed when selecting a mission location on the region map.
Tactician skill Dynamite wrongly states the explosion occurs at the end of the enemy's turn, should be at the start of turn.
Survivor character Loaf plays incorrect voice emotes when triggered in combat.
Skill Observer (Tactician) is able to redraw skill Stockpile (Commando), it should not.
Combat card details hidden with Ctrl key do not stay hidden on new encounters.
Accessory Beanie gets renamed after upgrading to the pristine condition.
Killing Spree stacks can be gained from attacks against non-minion enemies (propane, rotting corpses), which can also result in losing stacks.
Flamethrower spray does not explode propane tanks or fuel barrels in play that can be blown up with regular firearms.
Assignment reward card details hides the hovered over reward (visual issue only).
Fixed a few non-critical game errors tied to mesh colliders on stone clubs.
Many small typo fixes, reported in Discord.
Total unlocked Revenant elite perks is always showing 0 on the Skills UI.
Total bonus HP from points spent in Fitness attributes for the Revenant class is always showing 0 on the Skills UI.
If a Revenant dies in combat and gets returned to hand using the Rise Again skill, the merc not redrawn to hand on the next encounter.
Good visibility should not be applied on Revenant mercs as they have no ranged weapons.
Trader almost never sells any Revenant items due to a bug with mission requirement.
Slade should now regularly offer Revenant weapons after unlocking location Supermarket.
Added 10 new Revenant unique weapons to the game most of which can be purchased from Slade.
Achievement "Tune In" does not unlock after completing the Radio Station 3 times.
Achievement "So Close I Can Smell Them" (melee attacks only) can be completed while using a Flamethrower.
Aimed Shot crits with 5k, 10k, 20k are not triggering the related achievements. This was incorrectly shown in combat log on non-crit Aimed Shot hits which should not count. Adjusted the log and improved the information of failed Aimed Shots.
Thanks for all the reports! Please continue to submit feedback on the forums or in Discord.
--Paul
Survivor character Garrett now unlocks earlier at the much easier location Water Supplies. This leads into a smoother progression for his first assignment which can be done at the Warehouse.
Note: This will not affect players who've already unlocked the Virology lab. If you haven't completed the Warehouse yet, you may need to run Water Supplies again to unlock Garrett.
Player is unable to change the game difficulty from EASY to NORMAL or VETERAN.
Disabled enemy ability "Rise Again" due to confusion with enemies potentially respawning on Area Clear. This random ability will be reworked in a future content update.
Thanks for the reports! --Paul
This is the third post-1.0 patch. The soft launch is now getting more stable and I'm close to pushing the store page out of Early Access for the official release. Thank you for all the reports!
Added a new option to reduce screen brightness in Game Settings - Video.
Boss Bone Horror has been moved from the Warehouse to Pine Valley PD.
Reduced the total spawned enemies at Pine Valley PD.
Slade has a slightly higher chance at offering machine guns for sale.
Adjusted the Dormant status description on tutorial zombies to explain the Rage mechanic better.
Slade card voice emotes at Stash House are now only played on the first 5 runs to the location.
Improved Slade's card details to indicate his ammo drops on every turn. Useful for new players.
Assignment item Brass Screws should now drop on more street signs around the region.
Renamed weapon Axe to Forest Axe.
Improved the display of trained weapon stats when looking at merc details in camp.
Gadget Quiver now boost the total rolled damage of Aimed Shots instead of the base damage.
Gadget Quiver has been rebalanced in damage scaling for all upgrade stages.
Gadget HV Sniper Rounds now also boosts the total rolled damage of Aimed Shots.
Gadget HV Sniper Rounds has been rebalanced to match the scaling of Quiver.
Slightly increased survivor Jack's damage scaling off the primary merc's weapon.
After finishing a combat encounter, mercs are not entering the next combat encounter with the last used weapon in hand. This was mostly apparent on a merc finishing an encounter with a ranged weapon in hand, only to forget to auto-switch to the ranged weapon on next encounter after entering combat. Mercs should switch even with 0 ammo remaining, just to stay consistent.
Degraded SMG Suzi is using an incorrect weapon model.
Gadget HV Sniper Rounds is not scaling correctly past the Fine-Tuned (blue) quality.
Gadget Quiver is not scaling correctly past the Improved (green) quality.
Incorrect stat shown for survivor Brie, should say -5% steal chance on upgrades instead of -3%.
Damage of survivor Jack increases after each crit, this is not intentional.
Added a new Game Settings - General option to disable special characters in skill details. This may fix issues if you're seeing glitched card/skill details in camp or combat when using some untested Windows localization.
Player is unable to unlock the final mission Army Base after using the Engineer's ability at the Tunnel. This can happen if the player closes the campaign dialog and chooses a reward from Frank's last assignment. Reloading the last save would fix it, but new checks are now in place.
Ray's job Worn Alternator references location Crossroads, should be Roadblock.
Player is unable to complete an encounter with no enemies remaining (rare bug).
Achievement Unstoppable is unlocking too soon, should be 24 Elite Perks.
Skills tutorial is not shown while playing on the EASY mode.
Many small typo fixes based on player reports.
This is the second post-1.0 patch. The game is still going though its soft launch into 1.0 and all Steam/Discord reports have been a great help. Thank you!
Added a new Game Settings option to disable the AREA CLEARED dialog. The dialog can be completely disabled or shown with no pending loot on area clear. Board alert options have been moved to Game Settings - Combat 2.
Total skill points earned in any merc class have been increased from 120 to 150.
Reduced the HP scaling of the final boss. This matters more on the higher difficulties.
Revenant kills had a very low chance of finding Armory points and it only triggered on kills with weapons. This has been adjusted for all Revenant kills (including unarmed) to roll for Armory points instead. The chance is 5%, matching that of sharp/blunt weapons used by the regular mercs.
Unable to earn the last 5 points to max the skill points earned for a merc class.
Exceptional (purple) Monkey Wrench is missing the special weapon perk.
Insufficient supplies to upgrade an item shows an incorrect error tied to the camp workbench.
Merc rank up effects are not shown if XP was gained from a killing blow in a 3D cutscene.
Removing custom zombies from the The Fallen (streamer feature), is not saved, causing them to spawn again.
Commando skill Grenadier is not tracking all the stashed grenades form the skill Frag Out.
Enemies with status Rise Again can respawn on Area Clear.
Mission victory stat page is showing 0 for ranged kills after scoring kills with a ranged weapon.
Game difficulty info on the new game setup UI in a "HARD" game mode should be "VETERAN".
Enforcer in-combat status icons for skills Closure, Shield Slam, and Fortification are using out-of-date art.
Red Van area object at area Lost Convoy should be a Red Truck instead. This is typically looted for an assignment.
Fixes for typos in mission and dialog text reported by players on Discord.
Sharp Shooter combat glory adjusted to indicate the points are also given on missed shots.
Tools of the Trade achievement has a typo in requirement. (fixed in-game, will be fixed on Steam later)
Thank you for the feedback and bug reports and I'll see you in Pine Valley.
--Paul
This is the first post-1.0 patch, addressing key issues and early player feedback. As the game continues its soft launch into 1.0, I’m moving quickly to resolve bugs and improve stability.
Added a Game Settings option to toggle the YOUR/ENEMY TURN animations.
Added XP info to the bottom of merc details in combat (current XP / XP to next level). This was a frequent request.
Survivor Jack's damage now factors in the full multi-shot damage of the ranged weapon equipped on the first merc in squad. Previously, only the first shot counted and this was confusing. Jack's card details now shows the name of the weapon equipped on the primary merc.
Survivor Shadow's card details have been updated to explain the damage scaling, similar to Jack.
Reduced survivor Ned's chance to deploy barbed from 105% to 75% at max support rank. Ned's failed deployment rolls are now shown in combat log.
Discovering survivor Ramon now also grants a new recruit in camp. This change is to avoid players getting locked into bad rolls on mission repeats, stuck with 2 mercs. Consecutive mercs are still found by Ramon's daily ability which can be improved with intel.
Slightly reduced enemy scaling on the Veteran difficulty, to match that of Early Access. No changes were made to the other difficulty modes.
Rebalanced the rewards of many assignment with a different selection of weapons.
Survivor character Loaf is not discovered after completing location Bunker of Rot. If you've already completed Bunker of Rot, repeating it should unlock Loaf.
Vigor stat on merc Nick should be 7 HP per rank, not not 5, matching the other Leader mercs.
Fire effect applied on skeletons is not scaled correctly and appears too big. Skeletons can be set on fire with flamethrowers as they penetrate fire resistances.
Camp Utility room shows a formatting error when the fuel is at 0.
Upgrading a camp room with supplies to its max rank can show 1 more upgrade, a visual bug only.
Survivor Klaus triggers xp/rep rewards with no unaware enemies remaining.
All missed ranged attacks are not showing a fired projectile which looks confusing.
Combat Glory Spawn Spree is counting non-minion cards (bags, area objects) for the score.
Combat Glory Thriller is counting non-minion cards (bags, area objects) for the score.
Fixes for multiple typos reported by players on Discord.
Thank you for the feedback and bug reports and I'll see you in Pine Valley.
--Paul
Greetings Mercs!
Dead Grid initial development started in 2018. Nearly 4 years ago, it entered Early Access. Today, I’m super excited to finally release 1.0!
Built through years of iteration and refinement, this release exists because of the Early Access community. A huge thank you to everyone who played, shared feedback, and stuck with me throughout Early Access. Your contribution shaped the direction of the game!
Without further ado, let’s take a look at all the new features of content update 08.
A new 3D representation of the camp has been added to the game. There are now 8 rooms with individual progression tied to the campaign, assignments, and various upgrades.
A campaign has been added to the game leading to a victory screen.
Hovering over the region map header shows your main objective and over-all game score.
There are now 25 region locations. Some are tied to the campaign and some are optional.
Six new region locations have been added tied to the campaign.
Item rewards have been rebalanced at all region locations.
Many new enemy types, including elite and boss zombies with powerful abilities.
A new Area Cleared message has been added, replacing the original.
Every encounter now comes with a custom name, tied to the theme of the location.
Improved the visual indicator pending containers on area clear.
Mission scaling (mission repeats) now offers a new Enemy Threat system.
Weapons found at harder locations drop with a higher item level.
Missions now require fuel to reach, explained later in this post.
Added 12 new region modifiers designed to reduce the enemy threat of locations.
Added 3 new region modifiers tied to survivors.
Travel fuel is a new system introduced with 1.0, required to reach distant locations.
Fuel is automatically restocked and can further upgraded by spending intel points on Slade.
The early to mid game missions do not require much fuel.
Late game missions require a bit more planning, especially with repeats.
Fuel storage capacity can be upgraded by completing assignments for Slade.
In addition to the fuel restock by Slade, your camp's mission van can be upgraded to consume less fuel on trips by completing assignments for character Ray.
A new scoring system has been added to the game, called Glory.
This has no impact on game progression and is only used as a visual stat.
Glory is earned by killing enemies, completing missions and pulling off combos in combat.
Many combos now play a board announcer emote with over 50 emotes added to the game.
Combat Glory voice or visual emotes can be completely disabled in Game Settings.
All 15 survivors are now in the game and offer around 50 assignments with custom rewards.
Intel spent on survivors is no longer tied to single locations. Many survivors have been changed and offer all new abilities to help you in your camp.
The camp's survivors room shows all the intel spent from different locations.
Leader's trait tied to summoning sickness has been changed.
Previously, a Leader merc had to be in combat for the ability to trigger, now a leader only needs to be in your mission squad.
This change means Leaders no longer need to be the first merc (primary merc) in squad.
The formatting of all class traits has been improved.
Eliminated bosses now spawn a lootable area object with a selection of rewards.
Previously, eliminated bosses had to be looted which was frequently missed.
New accessories and gadgets were added to the game for you to discover.
Some gadgets now work while quipped on any merc in camp, not in your mission squad.
Lots of new consumables and trash items for a better variety of random drops.
Many new SMGs, Assault Rifles, and Sniper rifles all with custom art and models.
Firearms with silencers are now marked as special weapons since they behave different from the expected loud firearms.
Tutorial shovel has been replaced with a new axe that upgrades to a decent mid-game weapon.
Added new modifiers to non-unique melee and ranged weapons, granting additional tactical benefits. Weapons containing these modifiers have a custom card frame with a cog icon on the top left corner.
Parry chances offered by all melee weapons have been phased out.
Parry is now greatly boosted with by merc's training in Martial Arts.
Pistols and SMGs now offer a bonus to parry chance, playing into a small/light weapon theme.
Iimproved the parry chances of skills Tai Chi, Black Belt and Parry Master.
Enemies stunned through a parry reflect now remain stunned into player's turn, allowing you to setup additional combos with Skull Crush.
This feature grants a chance to select an additional card for draw at the start of every turn.
The mechanic is explained on the Skills UI.
This is a rework of an old system called Tactical Advantage, which was tied to individual mercs.
A bunch of non-class specific turn abilities were added to offer more options for getting supplies, boosting mercs in play, dealing damage, at the start of your turns.
Cards with armory point rewards are no longer drawn in hand during combat.
Points are still collected and consolidated on the Loot Haul screen as a summary.
The thought behind this change was to reduce card clutter in hand and also give an easy reference of collected armory rewards when returning camp.
The armory UI has also been improved with better tool tips, and a small tutorial.
The UI for locked labs has been improved.
Challenge modes no longer end, allowing you to experience the full game. This was a frequently requested feature by players who enjoyed the modified game rules of specific challenge modes.
A new challenge has been added, called Wasteland Purist.
Veteran, Apocalypse and Extinction difficulties have been slightly bumped while Easy and Normal remain the same from the last Early Access release. Boss enemies have a much higher chance to cause bleeding on all difficulty modes.
Apocalypse can now be switched to Extinction and vise versa mid game. This also covers challenge modes which start on Apocalypse by default.
Game Settings UI has been cleaned up with new accessibility and many feature tweaks.
Added a kiosk mode of hiding menus and UI from the title screen with 4 variations.
This option is available at the top right corner of the title screen and is useful for making thumbnails of videos.
Added 10 new music tracks to combat and camp.
Remastered all gunshot sounds for volume consistency and to reduce clipping of rapid firing guns.
Added 18 new achievements (Fame) for a total of 350.
A few old achievements have been reworked to reflect the new survivor mechanics.
Previously unlocked achievements on Steam are not reset with 1.0.
1.0 requires a full reset of previous game settings, saved games and in-game achievements.
An Early Access branch is be available to continue playing old saves, using the last EA build.
branch name: CU07 - Last EA Build (2025)
Updated engine to include Unity's security patch from 2025.
Mission location with 12 repeats is missing the vertical progress bar (visual bug only).
AR or SMG does not re-target remaining shots if the primary target is eliminated (occasional bug).
Cannot start a new assignment if remaining reputation is the same as required for the assignment.
Pressing (t) while renaming a merc or fallen zombie aborts the rename interface.
Some unique cards are missing card art, related to the Pristine condition added in CU07.
Upgrading flamethrower weapons in the Armory does not consume earned points.
Armory points do not drop when killing enemies with a flamethrower spray.
Flamethrower equipped on Nobu in combat is not properly aligned (visual bug).
Card details is wrongly placed (off-screen) while hovering over weapons in Armory.
Player is unable to finish the mission with all enemies eliminated. (rare case)
Flamethrowers found as loot and given to mercs during a mission cause a game error.
Event Precognition is not drawing a random class skill.
Enemies can occasionally spawn on area clear, by various status effects.
Many small fixes across tool tips and general game text.
This is a soft launch of 1.0 where the full version of the game is available to play. I will continue to monitor and push patches as needed. The store page will be refreshed a few days later, coming out of Early Access.
See you in Pine Valley! --Paul
Greetings Mercs!
Dead Grid 1.0 is on track to drop Monday, January 26 at 6:00 AM PST.
Dead Grid 1.0
Detailed patch notes
Brand new achievements & leaderboards
I’m doing a soft launch of 1.0 so existing players can jump in early while I keep an eye out for issues and patch as needed. This also gives me a bit more time to finalize media assets for the store refresh a few days later.
Quick reminder (as mentioned in my previous post): 1.0 will require a fresh start of saves and in-game achievements. Your old saves aren't lost and will remain playable under the following beta branch.
CU07 - Last EA Build (2025)
A huge Thank You to everyone who participated in testing builds of 1.0 on Discord!
--Paul
Greetings Mercs and Happy New Year!
Update 1.0 is now feature-complete and undergoing internal testing. A major highlight of this release is visual camp progression, with 8 distinct rooms you’ll upgrade over time as your camp grows. Here’s a quick preview of the 3D camp.
Because I want to make sure the launch experience meets expectations, I've decided to move the release date to January 26 at 6:00 AM PST.
Why?
Some last-minute bugs remain that must be fixed
Controller tuning is not complete
Time is needed for some additional trailer/marketing work
Solo development comes with many surprises near the finish line, and I appreciate your patience and understanding.
Due to the major progression features introduced in 1.0, previous Early Access saves will not be compatible.
If you’ve played during Early Access, your saves will not be deleted. A separate Steam branch will be available with the final Early Access build, allowing you to continue if you wish.
This is the first time I've had to force new saves since the original release to Early Access, it was not a decision I made lightly but unfortunately it must be done.
Previously earned Steam achievements will remain intact. However, in-game achievements (Fame) will reset with 1.0.
Thank you!
--Paul
Greetings Mercs and Happy Halloween!
Version 1.0 is nearly feature complete, but I still have a lot of work ahead of me to prepare marketing materials, create a new trailer, and go through extensive testing. I want the launch to be as smooth as possible. This will take me at least another month to prepare.
The release will require my full attention to patch and support. I would like to allocate some family time this holiday season, so I’ve decided to schedule the release for January 8, 2026 - roughly two months from now.
Here’s a quick preview of what’s to come, but not everything is covered in this post.
1.0 comes with a complete campaign, structured into 3 acts.
The lore of the acts is not revealed in this preview to avoid spoilers.
The final mission ends a boss fight and a victory cutscene, but you'll still be able to continue playing the game and improve your squad after finishing the campaign.
Some locations now require you to complete survivor assignments tied to the acts.
Version 1.0 comes with five new mission locations, new enemy types, and new assignments.
Completing major milestones shows a splash screen when returning to camp.
The game now offers an additional scoring system called Glory.
Performing various combos in combat triggers announcer emotes, granting a score. This is an extension to the existing emotes, such as Head Shot, Double Kill, Triple Kill, etc..
There are now over 50 voiced announcer emotes for different combos.
The board announcer now has a separate volume control in game settings.
This effect can be completely turned off in game settings.
Enemy scaling on mission repeats has been reworked to increase based on silent or loud runs.
Various region modifiers can spawn to help you reduce the threat.
The previous system of reducing threat by completing near-by missions has been phased out.
Added 12 new region modifiers to reduce the enemy threat of region locations.
Added 3 new region modifiers tied to specific survivors.
The survivor assistance mechanic has been drastically reworked with new progression and UI.
Intel points spent on survivors are no longer tied to a single location — instead, their support improves at all locations where they offer assistance.
More than 5 points of intel can now be spent on many survivors.
Spent intel can no longer be refunded. (Intel points in previous saves are auto-refunded.)
New mercs have a chance to show up in camp every day (each mission counts as a day). Previously, new mercs showed up after clearing a new location for the first time only.
The chance of merc discovery is now tied to Ramon. Spending intel on Ramon increases this chance, giving you more control of the frequency.
Dropped Armory point cards are no longer drawn into your hand during combat. These points are now collected and consolidated as a reward section on the Loot Haul screen.
This change intends to reduce card clutter in hand during combat.
The drop rate of points has been rebalanced and new gadgets can improve the chance.
The UI of the Armory screen has been slightly reworked.
Each location now offers a bonus to the loot level of weapons found during a mission run.
Harder missions offer a higher bonus.
The bonus is displayed on the mission details screen in camp.
Many non-unique weapons now contain new modifiers granting additional tactical benefits.
These effects are similar to unique weapons but improve with weapon (color) upgrades, they are listed as Special Modifiers in details.
Weapons containing these modifiers now have a custom card frame (top-left corner).
Firearms with silencers are treated as special weapons.
8 new submachine guns with loud and silenced variants.
5 new assault rifles.
5 new sniper rifles.
2 new sharp weapons.
The newly added weapons come with custom art and models.
A few underused gadgets have been reworked to offer new benefits.
Some gadgets can be equipped on resting mercs in camp and still offer benefits in combat.
10 new valuables and junk cards to be found in the world.
10 new random food and drink consumables.
Eliminated bosses now spawn a separate area object containing their loot. I noticed some players missed looting bosses while rushing to return to camp, so this should hopefully resolve that.
Enemies can now be stunned for multiple turns, enabled by a new Heavy Stun ability tied to certain blunt weapons.
Tactical Advantage has been renamed to Recon and is no longer tied to individual mercs.
Recon grants a chance to select an additional card to draw at the start of every turn.
The chance is now tied to points spent in different class trees, shown on the skills UI.
Unarmed combat training has been renamed to Martial Arts.
Base parry chance is now gained by merc's training in Martial Arts.
Pistols now include a Small Gun modifier, offering an additional bonus to parry chance.
Improved Parry skill has been renamed to Parry Master and provides a greater bonus.
Veteran, Apocalypse, and Extinction difficulties have been slightly increased in difficulty scaling, while Normal and Easy remain unchanged.
You can now switch between Apocalypse and Extinction modes while in camp.
Many players enjoy playing different challenge modes which end on a specific mission, typically 4-5 missions into the Region.
Version 1.0 will allow you to play the entire campaign on any challenge mode, giving you an alternative way to experience the full game.
New “Area Cleared” screen at the end of every encounter.
Every encounter has has a unique location name.
Many screens have been cleaned up, with larger fonts, improved tool tips, reworked text.
\\
Added 6 new music camp tracks (for total of 20).
Added 8 new music combat tracks (for total of 40).
Remastered all gunshot sounds for volume consistency.
Refactored rapid gun fire logic to reduce audio clipping.
As usual, the full patch notes will also contain a list of all the bug fixes since the last patch.
Thank you for playing Dead Grid and I can't wait to share 1.0!
--Paul
Greetings Mercs!
I'm deep in development on the big 1.0 update for Dead Grid and will be revealing screenshots of all the exciting new features as soon as the new UI is ready.
New mission locations
Final survivor, plus new assignments for existing survivors
Major rework of the area intel points system
10 new music tracks for camp and combat
Game difficulty rebalance (especially for higher modes)
Region progression lore and a victory screen
Improvements to existing accessories and gadgets
Additional achievements
Bug fixes
As mentioned in my Early Access notes, I plan to slightly increase the price of the game before the 1.0 release. This will also allow me to run a discount during the 1.0 launch. The price has remained the same since Dead Grid first launched in Early Access — even after many substantial content updates. A huge thank-you to everyone who's supported the game early!
Right now, the game is 50% off during the Steam Summer Sale, so it’s a great time to pick it up at a low price.
If you're enjoying the game, please consider leaving a review — it really helps with further updates!
Happy zombie hunting!
--Paul
About
This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for Dead Grid, sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main Dead Grid statistics page.
Articles link back to Steam for full changelogs. SteamScope refreshes news entries as new posts are published to the game's Steam hub.
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