UBOAT news & patch notes

Dear captains, There is a new patch available for update 2026.1. Changelog:

Type IX:

- Fix: Conning tower damages were sometimes rendered as see-through holes with nothing underneath. - Fix: Resolved issues with conning tower hatches being hard to highlight in FPP.

Missions:

- Fix: Issue with some missions not being marked as complete. They could keep weather permanently locked in a fixed state. Added code that retroactively fixes this problem in old saves. - Fix: If Python was sunk by HMS Dorsetshire, then it wasn't possible to complete the objective about taking survivors from it on board - the objective wasn't progressing after rescuing them.

Graphics:

- Fix: Volumetric lights outside U-boat were changing their intensity a bit, depending on the color of lighting inside the U-boat. - Fix: Screen no longer becomes brighter during story sequences when red lighting is enabled inside the U-boat. It was making some of them overexposed. - Fix: Patched code path that could technically cause the purple eye issue.

UI:

- Fix: Bearing display in binoculars could be frozen (or missing), if there was an officer assigned to UZO and we clicked the manual mode button on the portrait of another officer who was performing observation at the bridge.

General:

- Decreased depth at which U-boats can receive radio transmissions. - Fix: Clicking on the "Wait for convoy" button now opens up the new UI for waiting. It works more reliably than the old code that was still wired there, that could make the convoy appear around the U-boat. Yours, DWS

Type IX:

Type VII:

Ships:

Missions:

General:

Dear captains, There is a new patch available for update 2026.1. Changelog:

Type IX:

- Fix: Missing geometry under the stern loading hatch for loading torpedoes. - Fix: Forward deck gun was incorrectly reported on the Overview screen.

Type VII:

- Fix: Resolved glowing texture error on Turm 0 on Type VII U-boats near ports.

- Fix: Navigation lights stopped to work on Turm 0 on Type VII.

UI:

- Slider in time skip UI is now smoothly animated instead of jumping in steps when time skipping is used on the open sea. - Fix: If time skipping was initiated while any story sequence was open (for example during Python story sequence or after meeting a milk cow), it was breaking the UI and the time skip didn't work. - Fix: Survivors from sunk NPC U-boats had a placeholder white icon on the list where usually a class is displayed. - Fix: Only one pointer on the UI telegraph was moving to stop engines order after U-boat was automatically stopped for loading a cargo from another ship on the sea. - Fix: Notification about missing spare parts was appearing when the last spare parts were moved between storage slots. - Fix: Notification about missing spare parts wasn't appearing when spare parts were discarded by dropping them to the sea.

Crew:

- Fix: Sailors working on loading an external torpedo were appearing on U-boat's bow after saving & reloading a save file.

General:

- Memory usage optimizations. - Fix: It was possible to send crew to some German ships appearing during campaign missions like Atlantis after attacking any ally and being considered an enemy. - Fix: Fixes to some errors spotted in player logs. Yours, DWS

Type IX:

Damage system:

Physics:

Resupply:

UI:

Crew:

Missions:

General:

Type IX:

Technical:

General:

Localization:

Type IX:

Ports:

Missions:

Crew:

Graphics:

General:

Localization:

Missions:

Ships:

Graphics:

General:

Type IX:

Ships:

Flotilla bases:

Missions:

General:

Type IX:

Missions:

UI:

Type IX:

Ships:

Missions:

Type IX:

Type II:

Ports:

Interactions:

Tutorials:

General:

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for update 2026.1. Changelog:

Type IX:

- Fix: Two compartments had mismatched shape of flooding water mesh, not matching the shape of the compartments.

- Fix: Captain's cabin folded doors were stopping to work after saving the game state and loading it back.

- Fix: Echosounder button and knobs weren't interactable.

- Fix: Occlusion culling precision issues in FPP, that were making some geometry to disappear with no apparent reason.

Effects:

- Fix: Nights were heavily overexposed when "Darker nights" setting was toggled off.

- Fix: Pink texture could appear on heavily flooded compartments.

General:

- Fix: If a save was saved when TAB menu was open, then after loading it, screen was heavily blurred until TAB menu was used at least once.

Yours,

DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for update 2026.1. Changelog:

Type IX:

- Fix: Type IX family wasn't appearing in U-boat picker UI in old saves.

- Fix: Pathing issue near one of the tables, that could make a sailor stuck.

Physics:

- Fix: Second race condition in physics code that was happening randomly and could have various side effects.

Crew:

- Fix: Captain could freeze after tuberculosis event. Automatic fixing of this issue in affected saves was added.

- Fix: Vignette was remaining on the screen after a dialogue with a war correspondent.

General:

- Fix: It wasn't possible to save a game state after inspecting a neutral merchant ship.

Yours,

DWS

Dear captains,

Weather:

- Fix: Discrepancies between weather forecasts and actual weather.

- Fix: Cloudy weather and rain were too rare.

Tutorials:

- Fix: Tutorial highlight could be missing inside the menu dropdown during tutorial no. 7, if tutorial was activated without using that menu earlier at any point.

General:

- Fix: After vacation, assignment selection screen was becoming stuck.

- Fix: Resolved two issues that could prevent saving the game state.

Dear Captains,

Localization:

- Fix: Added missing translations to new loading hints.

Physics:

- Fix: Race condition in physics code that was happening randomly and could have various side effects.

Story system:

- Added voices to merchant ship captains.

- Fix: If a merchant ship was evacuated and its cargo hold was searched, there was no cancel button available there and decision buttons that were available shouldn't be there.

- Fix: If a story was played in an enclosed interior scene (for example a merchant ship's cargo hold) and the story UI was manually closed, then once the camera returned to the U-boat, ambient was often much more quiet than it should be. The issue was being resolved only after the story sequence was complete.

General:

- Fix: Issue that resulted in camera entering an invalid state after closing a port menu.

- Fix: Issue where selecting a new assignment was resulting in UI remaining stuck on the assignment selection screen.

- Fix: Several small errors with minor side-effects.

Yours,

DWS

Dear Captains,

UI:

- Fix: Portraits could be missing in the section view, if several steps were done, involving port menu.

- Fix: If HQ view was toggled while port menu was active, the port menu wasn't disappearing and there was UI overlap.

Tutorials:

- Fix: Issues with camera after starting tutorial no. 4.

General:

- Fix: If captain was in a flotilla base and U-boat undocked, the captain was not reacting to any orders afterwards.

- Fix: HQ could clip with a flotilla base scene.

- Fix: Wheels in a truck with supplies could still rotate after the truck stopped.

Yours,

DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for update 2026.1. Changelog:

Save compatibility:

- Fix: After loading any save from a previous version of the game, the center of mass of the U-boat was off until the U-boat was swapped to another type (it's the 45 degree rotation bug).

Type IX:

- Fix: Snorkel was in a vertical orientation right after installing it.

- Fix: On Type IXA and Type IXC, there was an extra ladder activator always visible in FPP that was meant to be visible only when Turm IV was installed on the boat. If it was used, it could make the character stuck.

General:

- Fix: If a boat type was unlocked by paying 1 ship upgrade point and then the details screen was left without switching to that boat, then after going back to the details view, it was necessary to pay 1 ship upgrade point again to actually switch to that boat type.

Yours,

DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for update 2026.1. Changelog:

Type IX:

- Fix: Type IX family was missing from the ship selector UI, after talking with the flotilla commander about a new U-boat.

General:

- Fix (regression): Changing a U-boat to a new type was breaking the UI, if port menu was enabled in the settings.

Yours,

DWS

Dear captains,

There is a new patch available for update 2026.1. Changelog:

Type IX:

- Fix: Type IXA and Type IXC/40 were using wrong geometry for snorkels.

General:

- Fix: Added silhouettes for HDML and Royal Oak.

- Fix: Screen could become locked after following these steps: opening map when port menu was active, undocking, leaving port area and toggling map off.

Yours,

DWS

Dear captains, The day has finally come. Type IX: Distant Coasts and the free Update 2026.1 are live. After months of extra work, testing and polish, we're proud to finally hand you the keys to the Kriegsmarine's most ambitious ocean-going U-Boats and send you to theaters of war you've never been able to reach before in UBOAT. Thank you for your patience with the delay from January — the extra weeks paid off. The update is more stable, more compatible with existing campaigns, and noticeably richer than what we could have shipped at the start of the year.

Type IX: Distant Coasts — the DLC

The Type IX family was purpose-built for oceanic warfare: larger, longer-ranged, and better armed than any U-Boat currently in the game. From today you can take them into the South Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope, and deep into the Indian Ocean — where the war looked very different from the North Atlantic convoys most captains know by heart.

Three new U-Boats

• Type IXA — the earliest vessel of this class, available from the opening days of the war in 1939. Three periscopes and extended capacity make it an ideal long-range patroller right from the start.

• Type IXC — a significantly improved version with expanded fuel capacity for extended patrols in distant waters. Supports three different conning tower configurations.

• Type IXC/40 — the pinnacle of the IX series. The longest operational range in the game, with a quick-diving forecastle and an armored conning tower as standard for increased survivability.

All three share six torpedo tubes and a capacity of 22 torpedoes, making them the most heavily armed U-Boats UBOAT has ever had. They also feature external water-tight torpedo canisters — a feature the community has been asking for for years, and one we're very happy to finally deliver.

New theaters, new ports

The Type IX opens up the parts of the world the Atlantic boats could only dream of reaching:

• Penang, Malaysia — your base of operations in the Indo-Pacific, held by the Empire of Japan and home to the "Monsun Gruppe".

• The journey to Penang is an operation in its own right: across the Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope and Madagascar, and into the Indian Ocean — a voyage of thousands of nautical miles through enemy-controlled waters.

• New enemy ports and naval bases — Mombasa, Colombo, Mumbai, Aden and more. We've also overhauled how ports in general are defended: coastal forts, regular patrols and searchlights now make coming close to an enemy harbor a far riskier proposition than it used to be.

Historical campaigns

Distant Coasts adds new scripted operations inspired by real Kriegsmarine history:

• Operation Kiebitz — a daring rescue mission off the coast of North America to bring escaped Kriegsmarine officers out of a POW camp.

• The Laconia fallout — pick up survivors in the aftermath of one of the most morally fraught incidents of the U-Boat war.

• Monsun Gruppe patrols — transport Japanese officials and critical cargo through hostile waters, all the way to the Indian Ocean.

• South Atlantic Wolfpacks — take part in group patrols inspired by Cape Town, Eisbär and Seehund, departing with a surface tanker and several other U-Boats on a single long-range operation.

Customization

Make your Type IX your own: custom conning tower emblems let you personalize your boat with iconic symbols — the clover, the crocodile and the tiger.

Update 2026.1 — free for everyone

Alongside the DLC we're shipping a major free update that every captain benefits from, Type IX owner or not. New ships have been, by a long way, the single most common request we get from the community — so we'll start there.

New ships

• HMS Royal Oak and the Revenge-class battleships — Royal Oak has been at the top of the community wishlist for years, and she's finally here. The Revenge-class dreadnoughts are now fully modelled in the game, from their distinctive silhouette on the horizon to their role in convoys, anchorages and port defenses. Yes — Scapa Flow captains, you know what this means.

• HDML (Harbour Defence Motor Launch) — small, nimble, and armed patrol boats used by the Royal Navy to protect ports and anchorages. Expect to meet them any time you try to sneak into an enemy harbour, and treat them with respect: they're exactly the kind of escort that turns a quiet infiltration into a very bad night.

This is the first batch — there's more in the pipeline, and new ships will continue to be a focus in upcoming updates.

Flotilla Headquarters

Each port now has its own flotilla headquarters where you can interact with its staff. The command structure is now represented more faithfully, with every flotilla featuring a Flotilla Commander, a Chief of Operations, an Adjutant and a Quartermaster. A briefing room and a staffed communications room round out the flotilla HQ so it feels lived-in and authentic.

Mission flexibility

You can now accept new assignments over the radio while still at sea, without having to return to port. Especially useful for the long-range Type IX, but seasoned captains will appreciate it across every boat type. You can also inform command by radio that you can't pursue an optional side-mission for operational reasons, so its objectives won't clutter your mission summary.

Weather forecasts

Radio bulletins are now transmitted at set times each day. Your radioman will be able to receive and decode them into plain text, and the forecast will also appear as a dedicated forward-looking element on the map — so you can plan storm avoidance and surface transits with real information for once, instead of guesswork.

Environment overhaul

• Fog simulation — fog is now simulated faithfully depending on the date and location. Summer months in the Arctic have plenty of foggy days; fog is far less common in the warmer seas. You'll also encounter the entire spectrum of visibility conditions now, instead of just "fog" and "no fog" with a short transition between them.

• Sea waves — after years of glancing at the spectrum code, we finally found the missing line that prevented waves from dissipating into negative energy. The result: no more waves that shouldn't exist, and a noticeably more convincing sea.

• Sea shader and clouds — the sea now uses more modern shading formulas, and clouds interact correctly with atmospheric scattering. Overall the sky and horizon look much more alive.

• Stars — and celestial navigation — stars are now much more clearly visible, and we've fixed a number of bugs related to their display. Technically speaking, it should now be possible to navigate by the stars. We'll be honest: we haven't tested every possible edge case here, but we're at the point where we can commit to it and fix anything that slips through. If you want to try it, please do — and let us know how it goes.

• Time zones — the game now models time zones. Until now the clock always showed German time, no matter where in the world you were — so sunrise in the Indian Ocean could happen at a very strange hour on your watch. From 2026.1 the on-board clock follows local time, matching what the sun is actually doing outside. Radio communications are still time-stamped in German time, as they were historically — so BdU transmissions remain consistent across every theater.

Performance

• Terrain generation is now roughly 3× faster, which means shorter waits when entering a new area and a smoother experience when moving across large distances on the map.

Gameplay polish

• Tanker boardings — it's now possible to stop tankers and send crew over to them, just like with other merchant ships.

• Type IX engine animation — the diesels are now animated far more closely to how real engines work, with the correct firing sequence for each cylinder.

• Character faces — 11 new face types, 3 new complexions, and the option to choose eye colour, for crews that don't all look like they came from the same village.

• Modding tools — we've added tools that let you unpack any in-game prefab into a modding project and use it as the starting point for your own mod. That should make it significantly easier to build on top of existing content instead of having to recreate it from scratch. Note: the updated modding tools will arrive with a slight delay of 1–2 weeks after 2026.1 goes live.

Thank you

Distant Coasts is by far the most ambitious expansion we've ever built, and 2026.1 is one of the densest free updates we've ever shipped. Getting here took longer than we planned, and we're grateful for your patience, your bug reports and your feedback through every development blog along the way. Fire up the game, pick a flotilla, and take a Type IX south. The Indian Ocean is waiting. Fair winds and following seas — and good hunting.

Yours,

DWS

Dear Captains!

We are very pleased to announce a unique collaboration - UBOAT has officially arrived at Ship Graveyard Simulator 2- Submarines DLC! 💥 Our iconic submarine model is now available as a free content update for all owners of the SGS2 Submarines DLC We believe this is a perfect opportunity to experience our submarine from a completely different perspective. It's a great chance for both our community and Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 players to see the same submarine in a whole new light! We worked closely with the Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 dev team to ensure that every piece of our model is highly accurate. We made sure that every screw is in the right place, every hatch works as it should, and every compartment is recreated with perfect scale. 🔩 For any gameplay questions or help regarding the dismantling process, hop on over to the Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 Discord server! 💬

Dear Captains,

We have made the tough decision to move the release date for the Type IX: Distant Coasts DLC and the free Update 2026.1 from January 29th to April 17th.

We understand that a delay is never good news, especially so close to the expected launch. However, after evaluating the current build, we believe this extra time is necessary to ensure the DLC is truly ready for release.

How we are using the additional time

Our primary goal with this extension is to deliver a stable and polished experience from day one. Specifically, this time will allow us to:

• Improve Stability: We feel that extra time is needed to fix several issues introduced by the new content and ensure a smoother gameplay experience.

• Ensure Save Game Compatibility: We will use this time to ensure better compatibility with your existing save games, as we discovered a few issues that initially slipped under our radar.

• Expand the Features: Since we have this extra time, we plan to take the opportunity to include a few features that we originally couldn't fit into the schedule. This includes external water-tight torpedo canisters, a feature highly requested by the community.

Pricing

When the Type IX: Distant Coasts DLC launches, it will be priced at $16.99 USD. We will also be offering a 10% launch discount following the release.

Thank you for your patience and for sticking with us as we work to get the Type IX ready for sea.

Yours,

DWS

Dear captains,

We are back with a new development blog! This time it's a long one.

As always, we’ve been working hard on the next updates for UBOAT. Let’s dive into the details.

Type IX

We are wrapping up work on the Type IX family, which will consist of three variants.

Type IXA is available from the beginning of the war in 1939. It's unique in that it has three periscopes.

Type IXC has an extended range over the IXA and is the main workhorse of the Type IX line.

Type IXC/40 has even greater range and an upgraded conning tower by default.

These will be the largest U-Boats in the game, with the highest range and vastly more living space. This makes them the best choice for distant operations.

Flotilla Headquarters

We've finally managed to improve the part of the game that, to us personally, has needed improvement the most for quite some time. We've reworked how port stays feel and function in many ways.

You no longer have the same group of officers following you wherever you go. Instead, each port has its own flotilla headquarters where you can interact with its staff.

The command structure is now represented more faithfully, with each flotilla having a Flotilla Commander, Ia: Chief of Operations, IIa: Flotilla Adjutant and IVa: Flotilla Quartermaster. There is also a briefing room and a staffed communications room in each flotilla headquarters to make it feel more authentic and lively.

You will be able to travel between the port, flotilla headquarters, and your accommodation by speaking with a driver.

Flotilla and accommodation buildings differ between regions. For example, in France and Malaysia they are requisitioned hotels, while in Germany they are purpose-built military facilities.

After visiting each new flotilla headquarters and being welcomed by its flotilla commander for the first time, you will also gain access to a quick port activities menu. This menu will appear by default after docking at your port each subsequent time and makes things convenient, but it is fully optional and may be disabled in the settings if you prefer to do everything manually.

Missions

We've invested more time into the upcoming long patrols that we first described in a previous dev log, namely the Cape Town Group, Wolfpack Eisbär, and Wolfpack Seehund. These are going to be much more story-rich missions, with a lot happening along the way!

You will have an opportunity to participate in historical events such as rescuing survivors after the Laconia Incident, meeting the surface raider Atlantis, performing a reconnaissance mission of St Helena, and more.

Once you arrive at the patrol destination, you will find yourself in competition with other commanders for the highest GRT score in the pack.

During these patrols, you will sometimes receive aid from Abwehr agents in British colonies who will be using a radio transmitter in Portuguese Goa to send updates about potential high-value targets.

World Map

We've added several more Allied bases to the game in the Atlantic and near the Cape of Good Hope:

• St Helena Island.

• Ascension Island (anchorage and an air base).

• Azores air base operating from late 1943 onwards.

• Port of Durban.

Graphical Improvements

New Faces

While developing officers for the flotillas and missions, we quickly noticed that it was time to add more faces to the game to make characters more distinct and recognizable.

We've added 11 new face types and 3 new complexions. It's now also possible to choose eye colours. Below are a few examples.

Sea Shader and Clouds

We've made various improvements to the sea shader and clouds to make the environment look more realistic. The sea now uses more modern shading formulas, while clouds now interact correctly with atmospheric scattering, making them much more visible in the sky than in previous versions.

Fog Simulation

In previous versions, fog had a strong tendency to exist in only two states: either full-on fog with visibility of a few hundred metres, or no fog at all, with short periods of transition.

In 2026.1, you will often encounter the entire spectrum. In addition, fog is now simulated more faithfully depending on the date and location. For example, summer months in the Arctic have numerous foggy days, while fog is less common in warmer seas.

A More Realistic Wave Spectrum

For a long time, we were quite sure that we had made some mistake in the code that computes the spectrum for sea waves. After years of glancing at it from time to time, we finally found the culprit. A simple line of code was missing, which prevented waves from dissipating into negative energy. This adjustment eliminates some waves that shouldn't exist and makes the overall visual experience more convincing.

While we were at it, we also made the swell a bit more intense.

Other Improvements

Tanker Interactions

It's now possible to stop tankers and send crew to them, just like with other merchant ships.

More Realistic Engine Animation

Diesels on the Type IX are now animated more closely to how real engines work, with a correct firing sequence for the cylinders.

Note: We haven't ported this to the Type VII and Type II yet, but we plan to do so soon.

Gun Animations

Guns no longer instantly rotate to their targets but instead rotate over time as they should.

We've also improved shell splash effects.

Release Date

We are set to release update 2026.1 along with the Type IX: Distant Coasts DLC on 29. January 2026.

We know it has been a long wait, but we want to get everything right and hope that it will be well worth it!

Yours,

DWS

Dear captains,

We are back with a new development blog! As always, we’ve been working hard on the next updates for UBOAT. Let’s dive into the details.

UBOAT on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5

We are excited to announce that Ultimate Games has successfully ported UBOAT to major consoles. UBOAT will launch on Xbox Series X|S on August 27th and will also surface on PlayStation 5 on September 17th.

We’re looking forward to these releases and hope that you or your friends will enjoy them!

XBOX Store Page | PS5 Store Page | Ultimate Games Discord

Type IX: Distant Coasts DLC

Indian Ocean Theater

The upcoming expansion will greatly expand the game, adding new ports, air bases, random events, and many new shipping routes across the Indian Ocean.

While playing this expansion, you will have an opportunity to join Monsoon Group U-Boats, which operated completely on the Indian Ocean along Japanese submarines. Historically, nearly 50 U-Boats were sent to the Far East, although only a few ever returned. One of the main objectives of these missions was to disrupt British colonial shipping at its most vulnerable points, forcing British command to divert resources from the Atlantic.

As a U-Boat commander, your base of operations in the Indo-Pacific will be Penang, held by the Empire of Japan. To reach it from the nearest European port, you will embark on an unprecedented voyage through enemy-controlled waters—across the Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope and Madagascar, and into the Indian Ocean.

There are many key enemy ports and naval bases in this new theater, such as Mombasa, Colombo, Mumbay or Aden. While developing these new ports, we've also introduced some general improvements in their design. They are now defended by coastal forts, regular patrols and searchlights ("light barriers").

Upon your arrival, you’ll find a fierce war already underway between the Allied and Axis powers - so expect heavy enemy activity!

Campaign Expansion

The expansion will also add several new missions on the distant coasts to the game. In 1941 - 1943 group patrols on distant seas take place, where several U-Boats and a tanker depart together on a single operation, such as Cape Town Group or Wolfpack Eisbär.

There is also a new mission on the Atlantic inspired by Operation Kiebitz, where your objective is to rescue Kriegsmarine officers from a Canadian POW camp. In addition, some old missions will see improvements.

For mission purposes, we've also added an automated Morse decoding sheet to the periscope view, that will aid you in decoding Morse encoded light signals.

Overview

Our goal for this expansion is to give you, as a U-Boat commander, new reasons to dive even deeper into UBOAT. We want to deliver a fresh gameplay experience - and we hope to succeed!

There’s plenty more in development, and we’ll be sharing it with you in future dev logs once these additions take final shape.

We still don't have a specific release date to declare for the expansion, but we hope that we will be able to commit to a certain date soon.

Captains, thank you for your attention - and see you in the next dev log!

Yours,

DWS

Type IX: Distant Coasts DLC

Update 2025.2

Weather forecasts

Mission flexibility

Modding improvements

Localization:

UI:

AI:

Graphics:

Missions:

Simulation:

Crew:

General: