The Callisto Protocol™ news & patch notes

July 17, 2023 PC

• Fixed an issue related to ray tracing which caused crashes

GLOBAL

• Fixed Out-of-World streaming issues in Final Transmission
• Continued performance optimizations

Added in auto-play functionality for audio logs based on player feedback. In order to maintain The Callisto Protocol's narrative structure and avoid over-lapping audio, some of the in-game audio log locations were moved. Full list below: OUTBREAK

• Moved one log pickup to the end of the hallway before the medical room, after the beta path door
• Moved one log pickup inside the cafeteria section

AFTERMATH

• Moved one corpse harvest/pickup to the corner of the red room

HABITAT

• Moved one log pickup back to its original location in the upper corner of a room onto a box with a valve wheel

LOST

• Moved one corpse harvest/pickup to the far corner of the garage

BELOW

• Moved one log pickup to the left of the moving platform exit

COLONY

• Moved one corpse harvest/pickup to the top of a ladder before the shimmy
• Moved one log pickup closer to a REFORGE station

TOWER

• Moved one log pickup to be inside a prison cell
• Moved one log pickup to be inside a Biophage infested hallway
• Moved one log pickup onto a table by a cherry tree

The biophage virus threatens to spread beyond the walls of Black Iron Prison. Fight through the derelict penitentiary in a last-ditch attempt to retrieve Mahler’s data, get it off Callisto and redeem yourself. ONE LAST JOB Black Iron Prison is in ruins and crawling with biophage. But your work on Callisto isn't finished yet. Survive the horrors lurking in the shadows long enough to retrieve Dr. Mahler’s research and transmit it off-world. Discover the harrowing depths of Mahler’s experiments and the vast reach of Kallipolis’ influence. TERRIFYING NEW ENEMY Not only must you face the monstrosities and Security Units lurking the halls of Black Iron but a new abomination – part biophage, part machine – now stalks the crumbling prison. Keep your guard up and use every weapon at your disposal to destroy these powerful new enemies. HAMMER TIME The terrors lurking Black Iron are imposing... but so are you. Acquire the all-new Kinetic Hammer to take down hordes of biophage. Use the heavy-hitting hammer to bludgeon a single biophage and crowd control multiple enemies at once or use the charged heavy attack to deal massive damage and dismember your adversaries.

Get the Riot Bundle now. Featuring the all-new Riot Mode, new animations showcasing lethal kills, and an exciting new cosmetic collection. Start A Riot Venture into a previously undiscovered area in the depths of Black Iron Prison filled with hordes of biophage in Riot Mode. Fight through increasingly difficult waves of enemies, earning credits to unlock powerful upgrades and purchase health and resources to help you survive. Complete objectives to unlock Rampage Mode, granting unlimited ammo and GRP charges that instantly kills enemies to give you the edge in battle. New Ways to Kill Showcase your lethality. The Riot Bundle adds eleven exciting new animations for Jacob to execute biophage in brutally creative ways. Available in all modes. Survive in Style Honor the first colonists of Callisto by wearing the Prospector Skin Collection, a new cosmetic set for your player, weapons, and gear. And if that's not enough, earn 20,000 credits while playing Riot Mode to unlock the Hazmat Skin Collection.

April 18, 2023 DISMEMBERMENT MODE

• Take your enemies apart limb by limb and experience the thrill of instantly dismembering your foes
• Players cannot earn campaign achievements or trophies while playing Dismemberment Mode

GLOBAL

• Added functionality allowing players to skip cutscenes

Save 30% on The Callisto Protocol, including the Standard Edition, Digital Deluxe Edition, and the Season Pass! Offer ends on March 23. Fear takes no prisoners in this narrative-driven, third-person survival horror game set 300 years in the future. Players take on the role of Jacob Lee – a victim of fate thrown into Black Iron Prison, a maximum-security penitentiary located on Jupiter's moon, Callisto. When inmates begin to transform into monstrous creatures, the prison is thrown into chaos. To survive, Jacob must battle his way to safety to escape Black Iron Prison, while uncovering the dark and disturbing secrets buried beneath the surface of Callisto. Using a unique blend of shooting and close-quarters combat, Jacob will need to adapt his tactics to combat the rapidly evolving creatures while scavenging to unlock new weapons, gear, and abilities to outrun the growing threat and escape the horrors of Jupiter's dead moon. -- The Callisto Protocol Digital Deluxe Edition includes the Season Pass. The Callisto Protocol Season Pass includes: The Outer Way Skin Collection: Bear the armor of the Outer Way, an underground insurgency pitted against the UJC, as you fight to survive the horrors of Callisto. Contagion Bundle: The Callisto Protocol’s ultimate survival horror experience. Fight tactically and use your ammunition wisely – Contagion Mode’s difficulty is custom balanced with stronger enemies, limited resources, no manual saves and your progress is reset to the beginning of the chapter if you die. The Contagion Bundle also includes 14 all-new ways for Jacob to die at the at the hands of the Biophage, and the Watchtower Skin Collection, a UJC themed pack of player and weapon skins for all your gear. Riot Bundle: Venture into a previously undiscovered area of Black Iron Prison and battle through waves of brutal enemies. Gather credits to upgrade your weapons, unlock unique finishing moves, and survive the onslaught in the all-new Riot Mode. The Riot Bundle also includes eleven new enemy death animations and The Prospector Skin Collection. Story DLC: Dig deeper into the horrifying secrets of The Callisto Protocol. *OFFERS MAY VARY OR CHANGE. SEE RETAILER SITE FOR DETAILS.

Death is only the beginning in Contagion Mode, The Callisto Protocol’s ultimate survival horror experience. Fight tactically and use your ammunition wisely – Contagion Mode’s difficulty is custom balanced with stronger enemies, limited resources, no manual saves and your progress is reset to the beginning of the chapter if you die. The Contagion Bundle also includes 14 all-new ways for Jacob to die at the at the hands of the Biophage, and the Watchtower Skin Collection, a UJC themed pack of player and weapon skins for all your gear. * This content requires The Callisto Protocol base game to play. ** Also included with the Season Pass

Patch Notes - February 14, 2023

• Added HDR calibration settings so users can adjust darkness levels to their preference via the Options menu

Patch Notes

February 7, 2023

Hardcore Mode A challenging take on The Callisto Protocol’s survival-horror experience, intended to push you to your limits, Hardcore mode is not for the faint of heart. Here’s what you can expect;

• Ammo, health and credits are harder to come by and not every Biophage will drop loot.
• Increased enemy damage
• Decreased Stun Baton damage
• Increased enemy mutation speed
• Contraband value is reduced
• Hardcore Mode New Game+ (requires completion of standard Hardcore Mode playthrough)
• New Achievements / Trophies to hunt

Global

• Players that were not correctly granted the "The Protocol is About Life" achievement upon completing the game will be automatically granted the achievement
• Localization fixes for leveling and VO/subtitle mismatches
• Optimized enemy combat AI when player is surrounded by multiple enemies

PC Specific

• Ray tracing performance improvements

Patch Notes

February 7, 2023

Steam Deck

• Updated font rendering and UI elements for readability
• Created a rendering functionality profile specifically for Steam Deck with the best settings for smooth gameplay
• Updated control schemes for SteamDeck controls

Patch Notes

January 17, 2023

NEW GAME+

• Users who previously completed the game will have access to NewGame+ after the patch.
  • Application restart may be required.
  • Requires an active save file from game completion.

GLOBAL

• Fixed an issue where some users were not correctly granted the "The Protocol is About Life" achievement
• Added New Game Plus. Complete the game to unlock New Game Plus and carry your progression over to a new save. All weapons, upgrades, and Callisto Credits can be collected at the first Reforge
• General performance optimizations across all platforms
• Players no longer take damage when vaulting over obstacles
• Fixed multiple issues where certain camera angles or progression paths could cause environments to stream out and allow Jacob to fall through the ground
• Consistency pass on cabinets, lockers, and shelves to display correctly in High Contrast mode
• Voice leveling and subtitle mismatch adjustments across localized languages

PC

• Fixed low frequency crash in the Tunnels level during the Two Head fight
• Skip Death Cinematics button has been mapped to the Interact/Pickup input
• Fixed a long hitch when enabling Ray-Traced Shadows in the main menu
• Prevented mouse cursor from displaying during some area transitions

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December 15, 2022

GLOBAL COMBAT OPTIMIZATION

• Prevent enemies from attacking while you are attacking another enemy by adjusting uninterruptible windows for all player baton attacks vs standard enemies to add an extra 7 frames between hit and recover
• Reduced frequency of players being attacked from behind. Enemies now prioritize grappling or repositioning instead of attacking
• Widened incoming attack camera angle
• Widened angle for dodging off screen attacks
• Reduced damage taken multiplier when attacked from behind
• Increased player facing away maximum angle for Grunt and Blind
• Dodge optimization:
  • Valid dodge angle now allows player to have stick slightly forward and right/left while still dodging (45 -> 30 degrees)
  • Dodging at the end of the dodge window no longer means playing dodge animation and getting hit
• Increased animation speed for:
  • Health injector usage
  • Weapon swapping
  • Weapon reloading
  • Upper receiver swapping
• Auto-play reload animation when switching to an empty weapon
• Continue initiated weapon swaps after interruptions
• Extend amount of time between KTV appearance and mutation
• Fixed phantom arm kills by armless NPCs
• Increased audio cue volume for Danglers
• Reduced default setting for camera shake
• Added player invulnerable window to all 150 cm vaults
• Changed Two Head to a two hit kill on the player in Medium Security, and a three hit kill in Minimum Security
• Final boss encounter combat optimizations
• Minetown AI pathing and spawning improvements

PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY

• Optimized streaming to reduce memory usage in:
  • Habitat Water Maze
  • Snowcat Bridge Collapse
• Fixed a memory leak with the Reforge 3d Printers

LOCALIZATION

• Fixed voice leveling issues in multiple languages
• Fixed subtitle/vo mismatch issues in Korean
• Fixed instances of unlocalized lines in multiple languages
• Fixed incorrect text descriptions on menus in Korean
• Fixed untranslated instances of “Unlocked” on doors in multiple languages
• Fixed instances of missing voice processing in multiple languages

OTHER

• Added an option to enable performance mode when creating new games
• Added an option to skip death cinematics and restart from checkpoint faster

PC

• Improved lighting performance on AMD cards (reduced VGR pressure of FDeferredLightPS)
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to receive the "The Protocol is About Life" achievement after beating the game once on a lower difficulty

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December 06, 2022

PC

• Added popup dialog to display when players change ray-tracing settings and trigger a shader compile
• Added a popup progress dialog to display in the main menu when compiling shaders
• (Epic Specific) Fixed an issue preventing achievements from unlocking and displaying correctly
• (Epic Specific) Fixed an issue causing the Terms Of Service to always display upon loading the app

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December 02, 2022

PC

• Updated PSO cache to further reduce stuttering during gameplay

A new update is available for all platforms. Look for combat improvements, performance and stability fixes, localization optimizations, and general quality of life changes. We’re listening and grateful for your feedback. More to come.

We’re listening to your feedback and working hard to further optimize PC performance. Today we released a new PC update that improves PSO caching and further reduces any stuttering issues. Additional PC and console optimizations are in the works now. Stay tuned.

Thanks for your patience. A PC patch is now available to improve gameplay stuttering issues due to shader compilation. After updating, you may see temporary stuttering in the game menu the first time you launch the app. We are working on further optimizations in the days ahead.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42498459/50403ee321b4cd56001c4d8d733a7ace7eb7643d.png Prepare for survival by pre-loading The Callisto Protocol now

Glen Schofield and the development team at Striking Distance Studios are joined by the cast of The Callisto Protocol and notable icons in horror entertainment as they go behind the scenes of the game and discuss their shared love of the horror genre.Join us for Episode 3 to learn how helplessness and humanity go hand-in-hand to create dread, vulnerability and hope in the horror genre, and how The Callisto Protocol balances helplessness and humanity to increase player’s fear and invest players in the characters trying to escape the terrors of Black Iron Prison

Glen Schofield and the development team at Striking Distance Studios are joined by the cast of The Callisto Protocol and notable icons in horror entertainment as they go behind the scenes of the game and discuss their shared love of the horror genre. Join us for Episode 2 to learn how atmosphere and tension are used in horror entertainment and how the team at Striking Distance Studios is implementing them in The Callisto Protocol to heighten players’ sense of fear.

Glen Schofield and the development team at Striking Distance Studios are joined by the cast of The Callisto Protocol and notable icons in horror entertainment as they go behind the scenes of the game and discuss their shared love of the horror genre. Watch Episode 1 to learn more about brutality in horror media and how it's crafted and used in The Callisto Protocol.