Welcome to week 184.

This week we have updated the item rewards from missions and split them out a little more around the tree.

We also briefly go over some changes and QoL being made on the Tech Tree and the Contact Device.

We offer an update on Great Hunts and then go into detail about last week.

[quote=author] Last week some larger terrain changes where made to the Styx map. Specially at map locations I6, O8, and K15. These changes where made as part of our maps enhancements and to add content for the upcoming Great Hunts Campaigns. If you need to revert to a previous build to be able to dismantle your base and move gear there is a branch on Steam called 2.2.57 which we will leave up for a few weeks [/quote]

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This Week: Mission Reward Changes

In Icarus, players occasionally receive special rewards for completing specific missions, such as the ability to craft Sandworm, Caveworm, and Scorpion gear. While these items were powerful and exciting, they lacked visibility because they weren’t integrated into the tech tree. As a result, many players either forgot about them or never discovered them at all. To address this, we’re making a few key changes.

Tech Tree Integration

Previously, these recipes were granted directly upon mission completion without being tied to the tech tree. We've now added them as blueprints that appear in the appropriate spots on the tech tree. Completing a mission will unlock the ability to unlock the related blueprint in your tech tree, making their presence clearer and easier to track. We’ve also adjusted some crafting locations to better reflect their placement within the tree.

Account-Wide Unlocks

Originally, only the character used to complete the mission could access the reward recipes. This reinforced the idea of each character being unique. However, with the ability to take multiple characters across different prospects, that uniqueness has become less meaningful. We're moving these reward unlocks to the account level, so completing a mission with any character will unlock the associated blueprints for all characters on your account.

We’ve also implemented upgrade code to convert existing character-based unlocks into account-wide ones. So, if you log in with a character who already has the reward flagged, the system will automatically upgrade it and unlock the blueprints across your account.

Reward Distribution

Some missions previously granted six or more items upon completion, which made certain missions feel overloaded in terms of rewards. We've redistributed these items more evenly across the mission tree. This should create a better sense of progression and help balance the reward structure.

Upcoming Item Buffs

Finally, we’re planning a round of buffs for these items. Many were added in the early days of Icarus, and while powerful at the time, they’ve since been overshadowed by newer gear. Given that they often require players to complete nearly the entire mission tree, we feel they deserve to pack more of a punch. Expect updates in the coming weeks that bring these items back into relevance.

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This Week: Tech Tree Update

This week, the tech tree received a few updates, including visual and functional improvements that aim to make it easier to understand and navigate.

Preparing for The Great Hunt Campaign

You might notice some gaps in the tech tree—don’t worry, that’s intentional. We've created space for all the upcoming gear tied to the Great Hunt campaigns. These items will be unlockable by all players, but acquiring the necessary materials will depend on defeating specific bosses, both old and new.

Blueprint Hover Tooltips: Crafting Context

We've added a handy feature where you can now hover over a blueprint and see all the recipes associated with it. For example, hovering over the Campfire blueprint will now show you everything that becomes craftable once you’ve built it, helping you plan your tech path more efficiently.

Hover Tooltips for Blueprint Sets

In addition to individual blueprints, you can now hover over blueprint sets to see everything that will be unlocked together. A great example is the Wood Building Set—hovering over the core node now reveals all the structural pieces included in the set, making it easier to know what you’re investing in.

Armor Set Consolidation

We’ve streamlined armor blueprints by grouping full armor sets into single tech tree nodes. If you’ve already unlocked individual armor pieces, any spent points will be refunded automatically if those blueprints no longer exist. When hovering over an armor set node, you’ll now see:

• All armor components included
• Materials required to craft them
• Total stat bonuses when wearing the full set, shown clearly in the tooltip

These changes should make unlocking and planning your builds smoother and more transparent while laying the foundation for the exciting gear to come.

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This Week: CONTACT Device Update

We’ve made some updates to the Contact Device to improve usability and clarity. You can now view all missions through the device, even if they haven’t been unlocked yet. This lets you browse rewards, descriptions, and other key information beforehand, helping you plan your next steps. We’ve also added clearer messaging to explain why specific missions are unavailable. Whether one is already in progress, located in a different region, on cooldown, or affected by other restrictions, you’ll now see the exact reason. Alongside these functional improvements, we’ve made some light UI tweaks to clean things up and improve the overall experience.

Looking ahead, we’re in the middle of redesigning this interface's visual layout, with a focus on consistency and usability. You can expect more updates in the coming weeks as we continue refining the Contact Device.

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Coming Soon: Great Hunts Release

We are hard at work with the Great Hunt Campaigns, as our staff plays through the various elements. We have decided to make some large changes to some of the content, particularly improving the rewards and legendary weapons. Unfortunately, this does mean we have decided to push back the release date. We covered some of the reasoning in last week's post. We appreciate your understanding in this.

If you didn’t catch our new trailer in the PC Gaming Show, you can watch it here:



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Next Week: Mission Item Buffs

As mentioned above, we are planning on buffing many of the existing mission rewards (Sandworm, Caveworm, Scorpion, and Black Wolf Equipment) so they better reflect the current state of the game and are once again noteworthy items as they should be.

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Your support makes these updates possible.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/40692/Icarus_Pets_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/
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Changelog v2.2.59.138512

New Content

• All Character Flag Rewards from Missions are now Account Flags, when loading in with a character a conversion process occurs
• Adding Blueprints for All Account Blueprint Unlocks from Missions so they items are no longer hidden in the tech tree
• Adjusting quests to grant the correct account flags during missions as opposed to the character flags that where granted before
• Split out some of the items granted from missions and spread them out amoungst the mission trees (for example one mission was granting 6 items before -> now the mission grants 2, and the other 4 are granted from other missions)

Fixed
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• Extractors will now passively get attacked by animals - you need to defend them
• Add function to ActorTools to get distance to selected actor from current viewport location
• Update Cave Entrance main mesh to not use culldist volumes and have static 1km draw distance. This should prevent the entrance mesh from culling too soon and leaving visible holes in the landscape... may require world generation again for properties to take effect
• Fix inability to headshot Ubis from front-on due to poor accuracy collision setup. General collision/capsule component pass
• Tomoto now provides a little hydration when eaten raw
• Platinum Lightning Rod health has been increased to 10k
• Fixing Issue where Cake would not clean up on dedicated servers and audio for taking pieces would not play
• Cake Now Requires Butter to Make and Decays
• Upper Ice Sheet in the Nullsector now has a lower temperate range, and uses the IceMammoth Arena Atmosphere Type
• Added dirt backfaces to T4 crop plot for when you can see the underside through glass floors (SM_DEP_CropPlot_T4_SML)
• Tonics are now visually in players hands
• Creature scanner no longer applies a debuff to mounts/tames
• Fix a compiler warning about default property assignment in ResourceNetworkInspector
• Fix a BP compile warning about default variable value in BP_Sign_Base
• Increased Beast scanner trace distance from 10m to 100m
• Commit skeleton fix for Tonic visibility change
• Fixing issue where charater flags where being retrieved without an active player state when attempting the character flag to account flag conversion when logging into the game
• Fixing issue where the character flag conversion whas not passing through the player state correctly
• Buffs to Ghillie and Hunter Armors with reguards to the Forest and Swamp Biomes (Set Bonuses)
• Adding small movement speed buffs to Ghillie and Hunters Armor Boots while in forest or swamp
• Adding missing Biome Related base Stats (Volcanic, Swamp - OxygenConsumption, WaterConsumption, FoodConsumpton, ThreatModifier and MovementSpeed)
• Added a stat to resist the swamp parasites debuff
• Fixing Workshop item inhalers which where referencing old meta currency
• Adding Drinks their own icons & name while looking at the blueprint recipe preview
• Updated meshes and textures for Rabbit, including carcass
• Preventing the Blueprint Recipe Checks from trying to access outside their bounds
• Fixing Armor Set Bonuses Stat Display as they where wrapping a lot earlier than intended making them very hard to read
• Fixing Alignment on the Recipe count on the Blueprint Talent so it lines up nicely with the edge
• Enabled DF on Megatree meshes to improve distant shadowing visuals. Fixed LOD screensize settings on Trunk
• Portable generator - Fixed LOD screen size values for LOD2-4
• Added custom LODs to portable generator mesh
• Potential fix for intermittent FLOD Flammable FISM async race condition crash
• Misc asset fixes, made crevasse LOD mat not blue, increased DF quality on Bunk Bed, add small default white texture. Delete obsolete buffalo trophy mesh
• Added DM for portable generator at correct scale and implemented in BP
• Fixed issue with the Bait BP as it was still referencing a character flag
• Fixing issue where resources required for recipes where showing as copper ore
• Added connections for reoganized blueprints so they appear connected to the blueprint tree bench they're crafted at. Slightly shifted blueprints so items are grouped with similar unlocks
• Fixed issue with new Talent Widgets that caused 'Mission is Currently Locked' tooltips from persisting incorrectly
• Fixing socket that was moved incorrectly causing the sledgehammer in third person to be held wrong
• Add a missions unavailable button that shows after the mission communicator is opened, reminding players they can't accept missions and giving them the ability to reopen the error mesesage UI
• Collapsing the new upgrade and buttons related to great hunts on the communicator UI
• Fixing issues with the character flag and account swap over - character flags now grant ALL new account flags associated with the old ones
• Added missing target dummy blueprint to the T2 tech tree and adjusted recipe to be crafted at the carpentry bench
• Shifted logic for calculating recipe count to native code
• Fixed bug with new RecipeCount UMGs that was causing main menu to lag significantly after selecting character
• Fix BEAST not appearing as meta item

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Future Content
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• GH Mission Commuicator Rework - All GH Device Functionality has been put into the the C0NT4CT Device
• GH Device is removed from the talent tree, the radio has been removed from the talent tree and they are no longer craftable
• Adding +2 Character Talents for completion of Great hunts
• Rework of Mission / Great Hunt UI for consistency
• Added ITM_Giant_Cat_Lure
• Adding Workshop Splint which heals broken legs and provides protection for 5 mins, as well as a small fall damage reduction for great hunts
• Small Bags can no longer hoild utility items
• Fixing Scorpion Armor Set not being bound to the new blueprint correctly
• Hitching Rope can now be crafted on character when unlocked
• Changed some UV parameters in MI_IcePlaneBase_LitTraslucent to fix distance field artifacts
• Adding generic impact hit to default audio axe and pickaxe events to account for instances where no PM is set but you are still hitting something
• Add extra is-valid checks to deployable rotation warning messages
• Prevent vesper cage from being deployed without a vesper
• Fixed deployable rotation toggle appearing on deployables that don't allow rotation
• Added starting logic for supporting fullscreen overlay scopes on weapons
• Sharpening up some longer dialogue events to be a little snappier to reduce wait time for dialogue
• Updated custom LODs for DEP_Chicken_Coop_Royal and Rustic
• Rock golem spawner - Added PM_Rock phys material override on invisible blocker
• Updating Item Description for the small pouches so they now specify 6 slots instead of 12
• Adding a better way of displaying item sets in blueprints, visual with recipes
• Fixed BP_EDSCanister FX not visible
• Vesper Cage can be crafted in GH quest, so whitelist in FieldGuide
• Fix the build (don't check in DT with the editor open kids)
• Further adjustments and fine tunes to bullet impact distance vs volumes to help them not be too loud at close proximity but still audible at range. Also balance to armor which was consistently too loud even at lower velocitys
• Added various APEX destructible meshes for curved concrete BLDs
• Fix the build (DT)
• Ape_A: Hookup rescue dialogue line
• Recompiled NS_LavaHunter_Flamethrower_01
• Updating every mission complete dialogue in GH and replacing the line to mention the contact devices instead of the norex devices for better understanding for the player
• Fixed Vesper Cage being undeployable on clients, removed right click deploy as this still showed even if it is not deployable
• Add a hook for setting a scope overlay based on weapon stats
• removed little flame FX on Lava Hunter weapon
• Legendary Slug Launcher and Lava Hunter muzzle flash vfx
• World Manager location input string now supports older XYZ string format
• Update MissionDevice BP now that SK/SM meshes have been split. Add lighting effects to all upgrades. Fixed missing GH upgrade idle audio
• Fixed 0 scale debug spam. Ice mammoth bat cloth affector and head blocker changed from 0 scale to 1
• Deleted meta file from disk and obliterated the history. Added original back
• Removed 'can affect navigation' bool from many of the blocker volumes to fix ice mammoth getting stuck in waterfall
• Delaying dialogue after giant explosion. Bullet impact updates for turrets, volume balance pass on mammoth etc
• more improvements and fine tunes to bullet impacts to make shooting mission items more audible with better connection to player. Also improving the range of destruction of metal deployables for better feedback
• Separated DEP_T4_Communincation_Bench into Skeletal and Static meshes
• Separated DEP_T2_Communication_Device into static and skeletal meshes, also updated normals
• Updated SK_DEP_SpawnBlocker_T4 and T3
• More scope overlay WIP
• Update DestroyAllAI cheat to also output how many AI are being destroyed
• Updates to spacializer settings of all weapon impacts to help better let the player know when they are hitting things like turrets etc since the player now shoots more things from a distance that don't have the hit impact notify
• Update Great Hunt Device itemstatic to work same as other Contact device upgrade modules
• Update collision on CONTACT device to be correct to what upgrade state its in. Fixed GHs device not having lighting setup copied over to new system
• Fix Ice Mammoth relationship status so they are not attacked by wolves/other creatures
• Add Great Hunt Intro dialogue to GH UI rework
• Fixing issue where account flags where being checked before the playerstate was initialised when trying to display in the infor screen for the biolab
• Removing individual currencies for each boss and replacing with 2 [Biomass & Licence]
• Fixed References in various data tables to convert all biomass over to the new item (Living items, upgrades, rewards etc)
• Setup Legendary Weapons to be purchaceable via Licences and Upgraded Via Biomass
• Added icons to the bottom of the Exotic and Biomass items to show that they connect with the meta currency used in the biolab and workshop
• Adding quick new icons for generic biomass and licences
• Fixing Stat Descriptions which Still mentioned EXP-VIS and not Glaci like it should have
• Update some strings so they make more sense in exchange contexts
• Fixing incorrect tints and colours in the exotic exchange UI
• Ading Tooltip to Legendary Licence purchase button
• Showing Biomass (Green Resource) on main currecny screen
• Adjusting all boss drops to include the general biomass now the specific ones have been removed
• Adding Default Recipes unlocked on crafted devices when hovering over them in the tech tree
• Adding Auto Scroll box to Elements that can have over 15 recipes or craftable elements when unlocking one tech tree blueprint
• Updated helper function which looks up item name quickly to take seed itemable overrides into account
• Converting planetary boss item recipes to now grant the correct biomass post conversion
• Adding tooltips for Workshop Currencies so players can hover over and see what they are
• Adding ability to buy a Licence for 15000 Ren (3000 Purple Exotics) - Added this widget to Biolab and Workshop
• Removing Biomass Tag from the Biomass Item as it is no longer required
• Fixing Currency exchange widget to allo large numbers
• Adding Legendary Licence Rewards to the first and last missions in each Great Hunt Campaign
• Adjusting Biomass Icon so its not so rough
• Fix Blueprint tooltips showing armor set data on other blueprints if the armor does not fully open
• Add dummy entries for Miasmic and Crystal missions so the string is formatted correctly for mission objectives
• Commited missed file which was causing a build break
• Adding Small Explosive Damage weakness to Quarrites
• More sniper shot balances
• IM Fight - Added debug messages in intro section to see why sometimes on steam the IM doesnt walk to its intended location before starting the fight
• Increase number of digs on drill arrows, so they dig through thick walls (and basically destroy voxels)
• Distance adjustments to sniper rifle for other players
• Adding third person sniper animation and montage and data table setup. Swapping out bolt action rifle sounds for sniper rifle sounds. Adding short version of bolt in for ending of animation. Adjustments and balances
• Fixing build - Missing JSON file
• Adjusted the FX for Arrow Drill
• Fixed a bug where IM could be stopped by building walls when coming to and from caves
• Removed NPC look at angle restriction, as this is already restricted by control rig
• Commit a file that was missed (P4V issues)
• Small timing updates to sniper rifle additional bolt to normalize all and make more consistent
• Adding harvest banana tree audio to BPs
• Adding additional sniper reload bolt audio to give it a more slick feel moving slightly further away from crafted vibe. several balances for the sniper audio
• Fix Ape_C2 boss dialogue trigger time
• Tell player to try again if multiple people try to join an instanced level simultaneously and a blocking load is already in progress on the server
• Added Glass Beams, Diagonal wall, and curved and angled floor pieces, with all SMs, DMs, materials and textures. Apex DM meshes still need to be created
• IM Fight - Added a new 'mini crit' weakspot that does more than base but significantly less than regular weak spot for when IM has armor on. IM now has different crit spots for when hes got armor/armorless. Decreased fire resistance from -300% to -500%. Increased Head Crit spot to more fully encapsulate his head. Added floating number colour/icon to new crit spot
• Ensure EDS Aerosol effect triggers during quest correctly. Disable rotation on aerosol deployable
• Adding potential legendary bow audio and event
• Resubmit communicator file for great hunt dialogue change
• Add infant ape breath animation and allow left click stasis bagging
• Update Great Hunt intro dialogue to play once per character
• volume pass on baby ape
• Small volume balance of sniper bolts in and out
• Update drill arrow FX to distinguish small and large voxels, removed unused particle
• Adding bullet in event for sniper rifle, lengthening all bolt in and out events and volume adjustments, adding additional sinper tail layer and volume tweaks and fine tunes. Adding data table setup
• Removing Explosive Weakness from Dens / Spawners
• Fixing the Build Issue with D_FactionMissions
• Reworking hittable mission spawner logic so that spawners take damage from pickaxes and explosive damage (via projectiles)
• RG_A - Adding Spawn Blocker at quest location so natural spawns don't occur
• RG_A - Adding new Quest Steps to Frame whats going on in the Mission
• RG_A - Changed so there are no Golems on enter, one will spawn in front of the player, then others spawn surrounding in different locations
• RG_A - Reduced Multiplayer scaling so there are less creatures to fight the very first time you encounter them
• RG_A - Ambient Golems will now find and attack you after spawned rather than wander around out of the quest area
• RG_A - Rewording Objectives and Helper text so its spread out and is only relevant for the current step
• Fixing Widget Display in the Biolab
• Removing Licence purchase from the workshop and kept in the biolab
• Adding Mesh Setup for Legendary Sniper Rifle
• Adjusting Stats on the Sand Armor so it now becomes a desert and volcanic survival armor focused on heat resistance, exposure and water retention
• Dusty Miner Item, Blueprint, Stats, Recipes and Talent Lock all Setup
• Adding Arctic Survival Armor DT Setup, Stats, Blueprint Recipes and locked so it required completion of an Rimetusk Campaign mission to unlock - Ready for 3D when the art is committed
• Added Sand Armor & Backpack mission lock so it requires completion of an Garganutan mission to unlock
• Adding Legendary Sniper and Bow Items and Brief setup, requires meshes to be added to DT and will just work, also added placeholder alterations which can be adjusted when design is done
• Fixed GFur toggle cheat not being set to 'checked' by default, causing it to require being toggled twice to take effect
• Improved drill arrow FX and applied BP_Payload_Arrow_Drill on D_Ballistics
• Adding greatly improved bullet impact flesh sound to help better notify the player that they have been hit by a turrets bullet
• Added first pass legendary sniper rifle art assets
• Adding new dialogue line to play when you first find the ape baby. Adding audio, event, dialogue table entry and quest entry. Ready for test
• Updating all dialogue lines in the dialogue table to mention Your next contract can be found on your chosen C0NT4CT Device instead of the norex device to match the updated audio
• Fixing audio location for the reserach crate so when you pick it up it doesn't feel like the sound plays from the right hand side
• BP_Mission_Ape_Desert - tweaked blood decal placement to reduce unwanted spillover
• Ice Mammoth Fight - Added a 1:45 timer to the bosses armorless phase. When 'charging' the boss will run to player then start it to fix a bug where if they were too far it wouldnt charge and then consume one of the 1 loops making the armorless phase shorter
• Adding upgrade connect audio to the GH communicator event since it is now an upgrade not just a standard deployable
• Ice Mammoth Fight - Added max amount of armor charges (currently set to 2 refreshes)
• Increase radius on Ape_C2 quest from 30m to 50m when counting creatures killed
• Adding baby ape wounded audio, event and BP entry
• Adding unique audio, event and BP imp for when searching a dead ape so its different from searching a dead NPC
• Adding Sand Armor Icons, Blueprint Talent, Stats and Recipes
• Adding Norex Boss Upgrade Recipe - as it was accidently removed
• Fixed Cooking Bench Blueprint as it wasn't attached to the crafting bench like it should have been
• Added a Number on the Blueprints in the Tech Tree to show how many recipes you unlock when you gain the talent
• Great Hunt Devices / Crafting Tables can not longer be created - if any have been placed they are replaced with upgraded contact devices
• Incorperating All Great Hunt Blueprints into the T2/3/4 tech trees
• Adjusted GH Item Recipes to Fit Tier
• Removing Great Hunt Device Crafting Recipe Set
• Converting Armor Blueprints to be single blueprints instead of the 5 seperate ones
• IM Arena - Removed collision between the IM and the waterfall ice on off chance he runs into it. Lowered blocks of ice that are protruding from the ground to prevent boss getting stuck. Removed bloat from 'find closest location' task to try prevent IM from immediately attacking player from inside the waterfall instead of walking to his set position
• wip on improving arrow drill FX
• Adding sniper rifle bolt out and bolt in audio, events and duplicates of animation and animation montage for use within Sniper rifle when its in
• Adding distant sniper rifle layer and blending with close layer for realism. Removing previous mid layer which was using bolt action audio. Fine tunes and balances for first person, third and other players
• Update mutually exclusive talent icons to have up arrows and fix a case in the Ape talent tree that wasn't showing correct talent arrows
• Added remaining APEX destructible meshes for curved concrete BLDs
• Adding sniper rifle audio. Close gun shot and gun tail. Data table setup and adding it to dev scoped rifle for now for testing until real gun is in
• Biolab Inventory - Removed audio repeating when scrolling over selected item. Anim doesnt replay when reclicking on selected item
• Fixed a few typos
• Simplify T4 Spawn Blocker glass emissive to be static. Add light. Toggle between states. Add additional gating logic for resource network. Fix physical material to be glass. Tweaked visuals on both materials
• Updated Great Hunt intro audio to play locally only
[*] Adjusting Sandworm Gear Crafting location to be on the anvil and not the crafting bench

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Source: https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/1802354289583718