PIONER news & patch notes

Comrades, take a look at a weapon from one of the upcoming updates — “Inferno.”

What weapons would you like to see in the game? Do you have any ideas for our weapons team?

Comrades, the latest hotfix has been installed! The May 13 update includes the following fixes: Fixed shooting — during automatic fire the correct amount of ammunition is now consumed again Fixed incorrect fire rate of NPCs with automatic weapons — mobs now shoot without accelerated firing again, due to which players’ armor will break less often Fixed the operation of ammo crates at outposts — ammo crates now restore and function as before Improved operation of the Bastion raid — a softlock of the raid task related to the generators was fixed. In addition, raid stability was improved. Fixed incorrect operation of the solo events on Mushroom Plain: “Revenge” and “Silent Hunt”

Dear players! Technical issues on the hosting provider's side have been resolved.

Dear players! The technical work has been completed. We wish you an enjoyable game.

Dear players! We are restarting the servers. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Comrades! We report the release of a fix for Patch 0.1.8, which, in addition to a number of improvements, also brought a number of problems. Now the lion’s share of these problems has been fixed.

Also, due to frequent network issues, we have initiated a migration to new servers. We hope this will improve the gameplay by making the connection more stable. While the migration is ongoing, access to the game may be limited or partially limited — follow our social networks.

We understand that these inconveniences prevent you from enjoying the game, therefore later as compensation for the community we will prepare small gifts. Thank you for your patience and support in this important moment for us!

Game Improvements and Fixes

• Fixed a critical issue with saving the status of refill crates (ammo crates, medical crates) in raids

• Fixed an issue with calculation of purchase/sale at traders — previously traders could incorrectly calculate the deal

• Fixed the amount of available currency at traders — removed the bug with default currency value at traders

• Fixed several variations of game crashes that occurred when picking up items

• Fixed the ability to achieve higher fire rate with single fire using macros

• Fixed the behavior logic of snipers and a number of other enemies — now they fight the player correctly according to the original behavior logic

• Fixed a critical issue with visual absence of quests in the journal

• Fixed issues with hip-fire accuracy and NPC weapon accuracy

• Fixed the kill/finish logic in PvP mode. A player who finishes an opponent in the “downed” state is no longer considered the killer and receives points only for the finish

• Fixed incorrect display of ammunition in ammo refill machines — ammo could in some cases be issued above the limit

• Fixed loot loading in crates

• Fixed the operation of the following armor modifiers:

Dear players! On May 2th at 1:35 CET, we will stop the game servers for a maintenance. We will announce the resumption of service in a separate post. UPD: Game servers are now available.

Comrades! Due to the increasing number of issues, we have decided to migrate to new servers, which may result in limited or partially limited access to the game over the next few days. Thank you for your patience and support during this important time for us!

Dear players!

Dear comrades! We are glad to announce that patch 0.1.8 is now available!

The update develops the groundwork of the Community Patch (0.1.7) and brings many fixes and small new additions to the game at the request of our players.

Also in this update, we reworked many elements of the game, among which we would highlight large-scale improvements to weapons and game interfaces. You can familiarize yourself with these changes in the lists of changes below.

Enjoy the game!

Improvements and fixes to the game requested by the community:

• Fixed the possibility of wallbang shots on the map “Rassvet”

• Fixed the possibility of wallbang shots on the map “Laguna”

• It is now possible to complete the raid “Bastion” in sections requiring simultaneous interaction with levers

• Fixed a rare bug with teleporting from Tetrus while completing the quest “The Heart in the Desert”

• The weapon perk system has been rebuilt — now the attractiveness of weapons that previously had problems with perks has been increased

• Ability to dismantle medical items into components — for example, Bandages can now be dismantled into Gauze

• Hidden Graffiti events have received an update — now you search in the open worlds for many different graffiti (instead of one as before), and if you collect all graffiti from one map — you will receive a reward

• Fixed the absence of an icon in the game interface for the weapon “Carbon Fiber”

• Fixed a bug with the inability to reload the weapon “Chimera”

• Improved the landscape material on Rogue Desert — removed a texture with a high level of noise

• Fixed a bug with incorrect damage of the Tactical Crossbow at T2 and T3 upgrade levels

• Appearance change terminals installed in Ark, Tradeburg, and major open-world hubs

• Reworked the rendering of items in the workbench and improved control of item preview in the workbench

• Added 1 additional stash upgrade level up to 300 slots

• Increased the chance of Badge drops from mercenaries by 80%

Optimization and technical improvements:

• Increased performance and stability of server operation

• Fixed a number of issues when searching for friends and clans through the “Online” interface

• A frame rate limit (240 FPS) has been set by default in order to improve base performance

• A frame rate limit in the workbench has been set to 60 FPS to reduce load on the video card

• Search for expedition chests and storages has been optimized through data caching

• Easy Anti Cheat has been optimized, which now consumes several times fewer PC resources

• The save system has been optimized — players should now have better synchronization of inventory items with GFA servers

Changes in Brawl:

At the request of users, the rules of Brawl modes were changed

• Reduced the number of points required for victory in different modes

• Increased the number of points for capturing and holding a point

• Reduced the duration time of matches in different modes

How the time and required number of points now look:

• 3x3 — 10 minutes / 75 points (was 20 / 150)

• 6x6 — 15 minutes / 150 points (was 20 / 150)

• 10x10 — 20 minutes / 300 points

New battles with legendary characters have been added to Carnage.

• What is the point? Traveling through the corners of the open worlds, players can meet legendary Carnage characters — NPCs offering battles in Carnage with a high difficulty level. At the same time, such opponents have unique card decks.

• For victories over legendary characters, you can receive cards of these legendary characters into your collection.

• Legendary Carnage characters appeared in the previous Community Patch, but by this patch they were improved by us. We fixed problems in which characters disappeared from the game or could not be noticed by the player.

WEAPON BALANCE Next we will describe various changes in weapons and our vision of weapons in the game.

“Item 33” This rifle was intended as a spam-DMR for short and medium distances, but in the end it lost to its analogues. The changes below are aimed at improving exactly these characteristics of this rifle.

• Recently we changed the reticle, making aiming more convenient

• Base rate of fire increased to 290 RPM

• Changed the position of the weapon on the screen from the “hip” in order to visually unload the screen

• Reduced visual recoil to simplify aimed fire

• Changed the model of the built-in sight

USMG Fury

Although this weapon occupies the niche of an easily accessible transitional weapon — it became useless because of the peculiarities of its burst, therefore we decided to take the following measures:

• Delay between bursts reduced from 0.12s to 0.1s

• Reworked and reduced recoil. Between shots inside the burst recoil is significantly reduced and shifted to the last shot (since the main recoil occurs after the burst)

• Effective firing distance increased from 20 to 25 meters

• Perk “Gas Regulator” — damage per stack increased from 7% to 10%

• Perk “Western Ergonomics” — fixed an issue where recoil was improved instead of fire rate when health was low. Health threshold changed from 50% to 60%

Crossbow

In the last patch we changed the main perk of the Crossbow in order to make this weapon a support weapon, since it has the longest armor debuff among other weapons. In most other cases the Crossbow was rather useless and the following improvements should improve the perception of this weapon:

• Increased base damage of the Crossbow

• T1 — 180

• T2 — 205

• T3 — 230

• Critical multiplier increased 2 -> 2.5

Tactical Crossbow

We finally found and fixed the cause of the problem with incorrect damage calculation for T2 and T3 versions of the Crossbow. In addition, we made the following changes:

• Increased base damage of the Crossbow

• T1 — 205

• T2 — 230

• T3 — 255

• Critical multiplier increased 2 -> 2.5

AR 16 Ifrit

The weapon had potential that could not be realized because of incorrectly working conversion (elemental damage) and average stats, which we are correcting in this update.

• Fixed conversion of damage from physical to fire

• Base rate of fire increased from 700 to 750 RPM

Orc

Although this weapon was an intermediate link, nevertheless it is quite weak compared to its “classmates”, especially considering the fixed sight and low rate of fire.

• Increased base damage on all weapon tiers

• T1 — 42

• T2 — 48

• T3 — 56

Sirius 9B

Additional changes are aimed at compensating for the low ammunition capacity of this weapon family as a whole.

• Increased base damage on all tiers

• T1 — 37

• T2 — 44

• T3 — 51

• Increased base reload speed by 10%

Saturn 9B

• Increased base damage on all tiers

• T1 — 42

• T2 — 48

• T3 — 55

• Increased base reload speed by 10%

• Fixed incorrect values in the perk “Calibrated Rammer” — the accuracy increase now matches the description (previously it was 5% instead of 15%)

• Fixed the visual effect of a “charged” shot

Mosina-Volta

This rifle previously underwent serious changes, as a result of which it lost its attractiveness. In this patch, we decided to strengthen the features of this weapon in order to distinguish the “Mosinka” from other rifles.

• Perk “Reliable Zeroing” — fire rate bonus increased to 20%

• Critical damage multiplier increased from 2 to 2.4

• Increased base damage on all tiers

• T1 — 145

• T2 — 182

• T3 — 210

Dragoon and AT Dragoon

• Maximum fire rate increased to 160 RPM

Minos

• Fixed the perk “Cowboy Shooting” — hip-fire accuracy increase now matches the description

SAR12

• Perk “Fine Zeroing” — damage increase distance changed to 25–50 meters

• Effective firing range also increased to 50 meters

• These changes are aimed at improving the weapon’s performance at medium range, as well as better synergy with the perk.

AR-16

• Perk “Fine Zeroing” — damage increase distance changed to 10–30 meters

SMC Platform

• The SMC platform itself is inferior to other similar rifles. The changes below should help bring it back into service.

• Critical damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 1.85

• Fire rate increased to 270 RPM

SMC Rifleman

• Critical damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 1.85

• Fire rate increased to 320 RPM

SMC Proton

• Critical damage multiplier increased from 1.5 to 1.85

• Fire rate increased to 270 RPM

Mason and Ripper

• Perk “Serial Killing” now works correctly

Tomack

• Reload speed increased by 60%

• Fixed perk functionality — bleeding now works

USMG

• Perk “Focused Fire” — critical damage multiplier increased from 8 to 10%

Henry - Tactical

• Damage increased on all tiers

• T1 — 115

• T2 — 135

• T3 — 155

Minotaur

This revolver was intended to be an alternative to other heavy pistols, however it significantly underperformed in a number of areas. We decided to change the perk set in order to better emphasize this role.

• Current perks replaced with Serial Killing and Gas Regulator

• Upon killing an enemy, reload speed is increased by 20% for 5 seconds

• With each consecutive shot, damage increases by 7% (stacks up to 3 times). When firing stops, the bonus resets after 2 seconds

Quasar

• Perk “Ignition Granted!” now matches the description. It now requires 3 hits instead of 4 to activate.

Shchukin the Fisherman’s Soups

• All soups received updated visuals

• New soup models

• New soup animations

• Shchukin’s soups received numerous buffs and recipe changes

• Rare soups: Emerald Ukha, Mushroom Ukha, Enlightened Ukha, Alchemical Ukha, Cherenkov Ukha — received stat buffs and an additional effect

• Soup crafting economy improved

Game Interface Changes

Interface and Main Menu

• Login and registration screen improved — removed confirmation about the absence of a character, updated the appearance of the server list, additionally displayed server status. Removed the extra options screen after character creation before server selection. Added a settings button in the Lobby menu

• Shader compilation functionality and interface integrated into the main menu (when launching in DX12 mode)

• Online section interface improved

• Invitations divided into received and sent, interaction with this section should now be more intuitive

• Friends list divided into friends list and search separately. The search button is now highlighted separately in the search bar and is clickable

• Ammunition no longer occupies item slots in the inventory, and has been moved to a separate inventory interface block to avoid taking unnecessary space

Gameplay and HUD

• Weapon damage indication returned to the main player interface (HUD) — now by the weapon color in the bottom-right corner, the player can monitor weapon condition

• Removed the unpleasant falling sound that periodically replayed during bleeding

• Removed the display of bleeding damage on the hit indicator

• Player statuses were redesigned

• Player statuses received a new icon appearance

• When hovering over each status in the inventory menu, information about the status can be read. When hovering over a status, its duration can also be seen

• Food and medical items now have separate status icons for tracking current buffs

Dear players! On April 24th at 13:30 CET, we will stop the game servers for a maintenance. We will announce the resumption of service in a separate post.

Dear players! On April 16th at 09:30 CEST, we will stop the game servers for a maintenance. We will announce the resumption of service in a separate post.

Presenting the roadmap of new content updates for PIONER for this year.

Please note: The roadmap does not reflect updates and fixes dedicated to optimization, or improvements to server and network performance. These issues are our highest priority, and work on these fronts does not stop.

Dear players!

Dear players, there are currently technical issues with loading into the hub. We are aware of the problem and are working on a solution!

The game servers are now back online. We wish you a pleasant gaming session.

Dear players! On April 8th at 09:00 CEST, we will stop the game servers for a maintenance. We will announce the resumption of service in a separate post.

Dear players! On March 27th at 10:20 CET, we will restart the game servers. We will announce the resumption of service in a separate post.

We’re happy to announce that PIONER is participating in the Steam Spring Sale!

Get it now with a 20% discount until March 26!

Community Patch EA 0.1.7

Good day, comrades!

The Feast of Snakes is coming to an end outside our window, the Compass of Harmony has already been successfully charged, and we are excited to release a new update. EA 0.1.7 is a patch developed together with the community and based on requests from our players.

This update had several goals, but the primary objective was to stabilize PIONER by fixing a number of bugs and issues that made gameplay frustrating or limited access to certain game modes.

Thanks to your vigilance, comrades, we were able to discover and resolve several critical problems that had previously remained beyond our reach. We are sorry that you had to face these issues in your gameplay experience, and we will spend many sleepless nights to justify your trust.

We conducted several surveys and learned what our community most wants to see in the game. Join the discussion and share your ideas using the in-game feedback form or PIONER social media.

We want to note in advance that we won’t be able to implement everything immediately, but we will gather as many great ideas as possible and implement them according to priority.

Feast of Snakes The Compass of Harmony has been activated, and the power hidden within it has finally awakened!

Return to the tree-city Narifon to meet the Great Celestial Serpent, enjoy the magnificent views, and receive your well-earned reward.

Feast of Snakes Updates and Special Offers

• The Great Serpent has been added and now flies across the Mushroom Plain near Narifon

• Event characters at the festival location (Narifon city, Yan Fair) have been updated, and the Compass of Harmony is now fully charged

• Players who participated in the temporary event will receive a special reward — check your in-game mail

• Special offer: a new free skin for the Rooster is now available in the Reliquary for a limited time

What’s Included in the Patch

• Some sections include comments from the development team.

PvP Gameplay

While Shadow Lands and improvements to Clan Wars are still in development, we continue expanding the map pool and making important fixes to Brawl modes (6x6 / 3x3). Major improvements are planned for Brawl in the future, but even with this patch matches should feel smoother and more comfortable.

PvP Updates

• New PvP Brawl map “Lagoon” — designed for small-scale 3x3 battles

• Updated inventory for the Brawl Overseer — new weapons, armor, and blueprints added

• Fix for the Dawn map — removed the ability to shoot across a large section of the map from a spawn area

• Important: fixed an issue where matches would not start if the teams had an unequal number of players

• Improved performance in Brawl modes by optimizing excessive player model detail (these optimizations will continue in future updates)

• Fixed an issue allowing players to repeatedly loot crates in PvP zones

Gameplay Improvements

• Fixed an issue where weapons could be lost when swapping equipment with a full inventory

• Added additional fast-travel points across major open-world locations

• Fixed sniper scope zoom rendering partially outside the screen

• Fixed blur in optical sights and removed distracting glare effects

• Improved performance in hub locations (Wandering Pass, Ark, and Torgograd)

• Adjusted Epic graphics preset for higher average FPS

• Fixed loot respawn exploit in crates

• Fixed textures for braziers and certain characters

Server Improvements

• Improved server performance during long play sessions, ensuring stable connection and gameplay

• Work has been done on Carnage services to eliminate conflicts with certain antivirus programs that incorrectly flagged PIONER as potentially harmful software

Economy & Balance Equipment Durability

• We noticed that clothing durability was decreasing too quickly, especially in high-level activities and raids. This caused disproportionate resource consumption and encouraged undesirable gameplay strategies.

Changes:

• Important: reduced durability loss rate for clothing

• Increased clothing durability 2–3 times depending on the item type

• Helmets received additional durability proportional to clothing durability increases

Weapon Balance

• Major adjustments across weapon classes. Shotguns

• Reduced effective firing range

• Pellet damage now falls off faster with distance

• Increased pellet spread accuracy

• New combined damage type: Explosion / Shrapnel

• This experimental change compensates the above nerfs with increased damage against NPC enemies. Pistols

• Small-caliber semi-automatic pistols now fire faster (Nomad, Tambov, Cobalt and their variants)

• Pistols equip and holster faster Rifle & SMG Balance

• Vintage rifle received increased fire rate, improved recoil balance, and higher damage. We see this rifle as a solid option for players who prefer mobile semi-automatic carbines

• Old Believer and Doubloon received significantly increased fire rate, improved recoil balance, and extended effective range

• Hornet 006 and WASP 006 received increased base recoil, shifting their focus toward mid-range combat

• AR 16 Ifrit received reduced base recoil and reduced horizontal recoil, making it a more stable and comfortable option for most players

Bastion Raid

We understand that Bastion raid missions currently lack motivation for players. While we are working on expanding the bestiary (which will also affect this raid), we are implementing interim changes:

• Reworked rewards for completing the hardcore raid version

• Increased reward pool and overall value

• Slightly increased difficulty in some combat segments

Steam

• PIONER collectible trading cards are now available on Steam!

Miscellaneous Fixes

• A player storage and crafting station have been installed near the shooting range for easier access to your equipment.

Dear players! On March 12th at 10:00 CET, we will restart the game servers. We will announce the resumption of service in a separate post.

The game servers are now back online. We wish you a pleasant gaming session.

Dear players! On March 10th at 10:30 CET, we will restart the game servers. We will announce the resumption of service in a separate post.

Good day, comrades! A new PIONER hotfix is now available.

In this hotfix, we are testing a number of solutions aimed at improving game stability and overall gameplay comfort. We will share the results of these fixes in the upcoming patch and provide more details on the work we’ve done.

You can help us speed up the process by reporting any bugs you encounter during your new PIONER sessions from this moment onward.

See you on the fields of Tartarus, friends!

Dear players! On March 4th at 14:00 CET, we will restart the game servers. We will announce the resumption of service in a separate post.

The Compass of Harmony has been activated, and the power hidden within it has finally awakened! You’ve done an excellent job and gathered all the energy ahead of schedule.

The rewards will be available to claim in-game with the next update, coming very soon :)

Friends, we would like to share our first report on the performance of the game’s anti-cheat system.

February was a demanding month, and we issued significantly more restrictions than before.

Throughout February, and as of February 27, our team has taken the following actions against violators:

- 857 permanent bans issued with no possibility of appeal

- 575 temporary suspensions issued

- 89 users had their chat privileges restricted for advertising, spam, and other violations

In total, 1,521 users or accounts were restricted by the team. We remain vigilant and will continue to strengthen our enforcement efforts.

Dear players! Today at 12:15 CET we will restart the game servers.