Week Two — Reinforcements Arrive

Operators

• Tokyo 2043 (Dusk)

Operators

• Swan
• Index

Operator Abilities

• Skipspace
• Kinetic Pulse

Weapons

• AR1
• Shotgun
• SMG
• Pistol
• Revolver

Throwable

• Grenade

Systems

• Operator weapon loadouts
• Weapon skin equips
• Skill-based matchmaking
• Progression testing (Cap: Rank 1, Level 20)
• Sigma Deposited Leaderboard

Week Two — Reinforcements Arrive

Everything from Week One, plus:

New Operators

• Stonewall
• Phantom

New Abilities

• Shockwave
• Blockade

New Weapon

• AR2

Systems

• Progression testing continues (Cap: Rank 1, Level 20)
• Leaderboard reset

New Game Features

• [REDACTED]

Week Three — Escalation

Everything from Week Two, plus:

New Operator

• Mother

New Ability

• Overdrive

New Weapon

• DMR
• LMG

New Throwable

• Sigma Grenade

Systems

• Leaderboard reset

New Game Features

• [REDACTED]

Week Four — Season Begins

Operator Battlepass

• The first Operator Battlepass launches

Progression

• Progression reset + reward distribution

Systems

• Operator Reconditioning
• Leaderboard reset

New Game Features

• [REDACTED]

Early Access means building the game with the community. Each week brings new content, systems, and tuning as we learn from how you play in the Sacrifice Zone.

Jump in, experiment with Operators, test strategies, and help shape the future of Shrapnel.

See you in the Zone.

This marks a new beginning for Shrapnel: new content released weekly, feedback gathered weekly, and gameplay refined in real time based on how it performs in your hands.

This is Early Access. And we’re building it with you.

Week 1: Deploy to Tokyo

Map: Tokyo (Dusk)
Mode: Stockpile — 4v4 objective-based combat

Collect and deposit 300 grav-kilos of Sigma to your Grav-Sync before the opposing team. Complete the contract.

Operators (Week 1)

Two playable Operators at launch:

SWAN

A precision operative shaped by post-Soviet deniable security programs. Built for close engagements and rapid elimination.

Sigma Ability: SKIPSPACE
Chain short-range dashes (3 charges, scaling to 5 during match). Collisions deal damage and apply force.

INDEX

A frontline endurance specialist in the Sacrifice Zone. Anchors fights and creates space through survivability.

Sigma Ability: Kinetic Pulse
Release a blast of energy that pushes enemies back — or launch yourself into position.

Both launch as Rank 1 Operators with a Level 20 cap. Level up through match XP.

Our goal: scale to 5 playable Operators within the first month of Early Access.

Weapons & Loadouts

Available at launch:

• MR84 SPECIAL (Assault Rifle)
• TYPE 50 (SMG)
• CSG5 DOORBREAKER (Shotgun)
• TYPE 42 (Revolver)
• HGS1 LEO (Handgun)
• Frag Grenade

Operators support customizable loadouts, allowing weapon swaps on respawn.

Own weapon skins? Equip and flex in Early Access.

Zone Skins (a weapon skin type) grant XP bonuses during Early Access.

Core Systems

• Skill-Based Matchmaking (hidden performance-based ranking)
• Operator Leveling

How Early Access Works

Every week:

• New gameplay content drops on Wednesdays at 10:00 AM PST. (The game will be offline for approximately one hour during updates.)
• Designated play with the Devs events (Wednesdays 1 PM PST & Fridays 11 AM PST)
• Structured feedback collection via email survey and Discord #feedback channel
• Iteration based on community response

Our Roadmap will update regularly to reflect player priorities.

Early Access is still early. We need your time, your skill, and your feedback to shape what Shrapnel becomes.

If you encounter bugs or technical issues, live support will be available in our Discord, where our community team will be ready to help.

Early Access Rewards

Participating in Early Access unlocks exclusive cosmetics, XP boosts, and Harbor-based recognition for dedicated supporters.

Join Shrapnel’s Community Hub. More details soon.

March 12–11:00 AM PST

✔ Wishlist on Steam
✔ Join our Discord
✔ Be ready to deploy

Servers go live at 11:00 AM PST.

Contracts activate. See you in the Zone.

— The Shrapnel Team

If you’re new here, welcome. You don’t need to know every chapter of our backstory to understand what matters now: what we put in your hands next, and whether it’s worth your time.

Before anything else, I do want to own something plainly: as a studio, we’re accountable for the outcomes attached to this game — the progress we made, and the times we didn’t deliver the way we needed to. Leadership has changed. Parts of the team have changed. But the responsibility to do better sits with us now.

You don’t owe us trust.
Our job is to earn it — with what we ship, and how we improve it.

Game development isn’t a straight line. The plan changes when you test, when you learn, and when real players show you what’s working and what isn’t. When I stepped in about a year and a half ago, we took a hard look at what we were building and what playtests were telling us. The conclusion was straightforward: parts of the original experience weren’t consistently delivering the intensity, tension, and replayability a competitive shooter lives or dies on.

So we made a change.

SHRAPNEL is still a first-person shooter for people who love shooters — built around teamwork, mastery, and those “run it back” moments you talk about after the match ends. The shape of the experience has evolved into what you’ll be stepping into: Stockpile.

What I’m excited about in Stockpile is simple: it gets you into the fun faster, it gives teams clearer reasons to move and fight, and it keeps the pressure on in a way that creates stories — the clutch steals, the last-second saves, the decision to risk it… or bail. It’s all about making the deposit.

This isn’t us dodging the past. It’s us doing the work to make the game better.

You’ll still see opinions out there — some fair, some loud, some coming from real disappointment. I get that. What I’d ask is that you don’t let anyone else pre-load your experience for you. Try the build. Tell us what you felt. Hold us to what we do next.

Between the direction shift and Early Access, we’ve run two playtests — two chances, close to launch, to pressure-test Stockpile with players and turn feedback into improvements. If you’ve jumped in already, thank you. If you haven’t, Wishlist us now and come play with us in Early Access.

Here’s how we’re going to show our work from here:

• We’ll be clear about what’s changing between builds and why.
• We’ll be honest about what’s rough when it’s rough.
• We’ll keep the focus where it belongs: the moment-to-moment experience when you queue up.

Whether you’re brand new to this or you’ve been watching for a while — thanks for giving us a look. Thanks for Wishlisting. And if you choose to step in with us, thank you for judging us by what we ship next.

I’ll see you in the Sacrifice Zone.

— Ken
CEO, Neon Machine

This is more than a milestone — it marks the beginning of a new chapter for Shrapnel.

Over the past year, a small and dedicated team of developers and lifelong FPS players has taken the reins and rebuilt the game with a clear, focused vision. Shrapnel 2.0 represents the culmination of that work — a reset grounded in accountability, passion, and gameplay-first development.

Shrapnel is built around tight, objective-based FPS gameplay, meaningful character builds, and team-based strategy. Early Access is how we refine that foundation with the people who matter most: the players. To everyone who has stuck with Shrapnel through every phase — thank you. Your support is the reason we’re here, and your voice will help define what comes next.

A lot of energy and care went into this release. Now we’re ready to build the future of Shrapnel together.

Why Early Access?

The core of Shrapnel is already fun and playable. But shooters are shaped through real player feedback.

Balancing characters, tuning weapons, refining movement, and sharpening match flow all benefit from live play. Early Access allows us to iterate quickly, respond directly to player input, and improve the game in meaningful ways.

We’re an indie team building for the long term. Releasing in stages allows us to listen, improve, and grow Shrapnel into the strongest version of itself.

What to Expect

At Early Access launch, Shrapnel features a single competitive game mode: Stockpile.

Game Mode: Stockpile

SHRAPNEL: Stockpile is a 4v4 objective-based FPS where squads compete to collect and deposit 300 grav-kilos of volatile Sigma before their rivals.

Players take on contracts as Operators working for Valdacha, navigating hostile terrain, engaging enemy squads, and securing Sigma from both the world and opposing teams.

Gameplay Overview

• 4v4 squad-based matches
• First team to deposit 300 grav-kilos of Sigma wins
• Sigma can be gathered or stolen from enemy Operators
• Teams deposit Sigma at their active Grav-Sync
• As more Sigma is deposited, your team’s Sigma Abilities grow more powerful

Launch Content

Map

• Tokyo
• Time of Day: Dusk

Operators

• 2 playable Operators at launch
• Scaling to 5 Operators during Early Access
• Each Operator features a unique primary weapon and Sigma Ability
• Operators can be switched on respawn to adapt to match conditions

Abilities & Weapons

• 5 unique Sigma Abilities
• 5 weapon types

Core Systems

Early Access includes:

• Skill-Based Matchmaking
• Weapon Loadout System
• Account Progression System

Additional social features, including Steam Friends integration and voice chat, are planned for future updates.

Supported Language: English

Important Notes

• Stockpile is the only playable mode at launch
• There are no bots, private matches, or training modes
• Some Early Access content may be reset or adjusted at full release

How We’re Building This With You

Community involvement is central to Shrapnel’s Early Access development.

We communicate through:

• Monthly game updates
• Monthly development blogs
• Active engagement across TikTok, X, YouTube, and Meta
• A public Discord server with direct interaction between players and the development team

Player feedback is reviewed regularly and directly influences tuning, balance updates, and feature priorities.

Keep an eye on our community hub open to all players, designed to recognize and engage Shrapnel’s most dedicated supporters.

When priorities shift based on community input, our Roadmap will reflect those changes.

What Comes Next

During Early Access, we plan to expand the Operator roster from 2 to 5, introduce new Sigma Abilities and weapons, and roll out progression systems including the Battle Pass and Daily Missions.

Looking ahead to full release, Shrapnel will continue to evolve with:

• Ongoing gameplay refinement
• Additional Operators
• Expanded progression and customization
• New Tokyo variations and time-of-day options
• Map rotation
• Mode variants and rotating playlists
• Controller support
• Party systems
• Weapon customization
• New free and paid Battle Passes
• Expanded cosmetic offerings

Early Access gives us the data and feedback needed to stabilize, tune, and polish these systems before full release.

Join our Discord. Be ready to deploy!

Welcome to our latest dev update covering November through January. It’s been a packed period at the studio as we charge toward our upcoming milestones. With Recon One in December and the holidays right after, we’re bundling these months into one post.

Before we dive in, huge shoutout to the team for the push since Recon One — the progress has been genuinely incredible, the momentum is stronger than ever, and we’re stoked about what’s next. We’ll share more soon on timelines and play opportunities.

P.S. Our next post will break down your Recon One feedback: what we’ve fixed already and what’s in the works. Stay tuned!

Haven’t wishlisted us on Steam yet? Now’s a great time — we’d love your support, it means a ton!

Quick highlights if you’re short on time:

• Combat feels tighter: We overhauled shot resolution on the server side, fixing critical bullet registration issues. This didn’t make Recon One, but it’s live now and makes hits feel more reliable. We paired this with dynamic weapon spread (crouch for accuracy, sprint for bloom), ADS recoil tuning, and scalable hitboxes that adapt when you’re running or jumping. The shooting feels consistent and smoother.
• The game looks and sounds better: Sigma abilities got refreshed VFX — and we heard you: no more Wave dust clutter. Audio also got a full pass. Drones now roar, hover, and take off with new sounds, and weapons like the SMG and DMR feel punchier and more distinct. Environments pop with wet footsteps, wind chimes, and rain, plus ambient touches like crows and rats. Last but not least, updated in-game lighting and Operator material tuning improves readability and overall visual experience .

Now, let’s dive into the key wins. The highlights below show some of the biggest strides, while substantial behind-the-scenes efforts — including China launch preparation and core engineering work — remain largely unseen but essential.

Combat & Gameplay

Shot resolution is fixed. We dug deep into server-side code and resolved issues where some bullets weren’t registering properly. This was a major overhaul tied to bullet pooling and ticking. It’s the foundation everything else builds on.

Movement and weapon spread work together. Crouch for accuracy. Sprint and your bloom increases. Jump and you’re at max spread. Reticle bloom tuning, movement penalties, and fall-damage adjustments now reinforce a ‘move → stop → shoot’ rhythm, significantly reducing any benefit from techniques like bunny-hopping.

Hitboxes got smarter. We added a system that lets hitboxes scale with player actions (and made it easier for designers to tune).

Fairer Matches, Safer Respawns. We implemented and are actively iterating on our first version of skill-based MMR with adaptive logic for team sizes, wait times, and skill ranges. The new dynamic respawn system prevents spawn kills by placing you near teammates and away from objectives. Backfill keeps matches full, i.e. if someone disconnects, a new player can drop in, and you may join games already in progress.

Weapons and loadouts are expanding. The DMR is in-game with scope support, and the LMG is nearing completion. Loadout screens are ~80% refined with more consistent and clearer controls, and post-launch we’ll focus on optics, suppressors, and more customizations.

Pickups are being cleaned up. We’ve been prioritizing weapon pickup behavior and simplifying “what auto-picks up vs what should be manual,” while keeping Sigma interaction intentional.

Art, VFX, Audio and World Polish

The front end is getting a premium facelift. The main menu is now presented in 3D, replacing flat backgrounds with rendered environments, weapon animations, and Sigma previews. We also improved character lighting in the menu and cleaned up visual bugs like model clipping (where gear or body parts can intersect incorrectly). We’ve loved how these changes come together, especially paired with crisp UI audio that makes every interaction feel snappier.

VFX and lighting improvements are paying off. Sigma abilities went through a VFX refresh pass to reduce visual clutter and improve distinction between effects- Sigma Wave and Wind, for example, no longer look too similar. Drone presentation has also leveled up with new arrival/departure animations, particles, and lighting. Drones now animate into stockpile locations instead of simply appearing, and ambient drones patrol map boundaries to make the world feel more alive. Areas like Flood Town received more thematic details. Updated in-game lighting plus Operator material tuning has improved readability and made the overall experience easier on the eyes.

Animations are smoother, and small details add life. We’ve made strong progress on blending for crouch, ADS, shooting, reloads, and mantles. Grenades throw cleanly without skipping or getting stuck. On top of that, we added ambient critters like crows and rats for the atmosphere.

Audio is doing more work for gameplay clarity. Sigma abilities now have clearer, distinct sound signatures, with improved level-up and recharge SFX plus HUD cues. A cool sound effect to indicate respawning has been added too. Weapon audio got a full balancing pass: SMG and DMR in particular now feel sharper and more identifiable (the SMG audio is a team favorite). Environmental clarity also improved with context-sensitive footsteps (wet/mud), map emitters like wind chimes and rain, and a complete drone audio suite (roar, hover, takeoff, extraction).

UI/UX & Player Flow

We want every moment to feel intuitive — from login to post-match.

HUD UI continues to evolve. We’re iterating on in-match HUD elements to improve clarity and support moment-to-moment decisions during a match. The Sigma carry indicator has been redesigned to better show capacity and transfer rates when stealing or depositing. Health display has been improved for greater accuracy. Sigma ability, team, and fallen Sigma icons have also received a visual refresh to improve readability and situational awareness.

Launcher, public profiles, and localization are advancing. Public profiles are in place visually, and we’re integrating game stats and inventory displays, waiting on backend hooks. Localization is in progress for Chinese, French, and LATAM Spanish, including custom fonts.

End-to-end flows are working. We’ve successfully tested purchase-to-game (buy a skin> see it in-game). We also consolidated the essential UI screens into one cohesive system: Battle Pass grid, Operator progression, loadouts, post-game unlocks, and purchase/confirmation/economy modals — so it feels like a connected experience, not a pile of disconnected screens.

Progression and missions are in a solid spot. The account progression MVP includes Operator slots, loadouts, and Battle Pass integration. Daily and weekly missions are designed.

Building a fair, fun system that lasts.

Marketplace is ready. Entitlement and ownership fixes are implemented. The marketplace is ready for real items and P2P trading. Listing timers, warnings, and full flows for browsing/selling/history are implemented. Digital asset inventory is compiled for provenance tracking.

Gala migration and Fiat integration are underway. Migration is almost complete, with testing starts shortly (completion ETA is mid Feb, but we will keep you posted). Fiat and Steam wallet integrations are in progress.

Narrative & Lore

We’re making the world feel real, and the story is continuing to deepen. Dave Mongan is leading world-building, and we’re reviewing and updating all in-game text and VO to reflect Valdacha Corporation’s perspective. Our goal is for players to enter the Zone with clear context: why they’re fighting, and what Sigma actually means.

Cohesive tone and voice. We’re aligning narrative tone across every touchpoint: in-game, store pages, and throughout marketing, so the backstory stays consistent.

Finalized Cinematic. Cinematics are moving through finalization with updated moon/meteor shots, female VO, and narrative hooks tied to Sigma and drones.

Terminology Updates

• “Sigma Score” → “Grav-Kilos” (weight-based measurement reflecting extraction quantities).
• “Victory/Defeat” → “Contract Fulfilled/Terminated” (reinforcing corporate framing).
• “Stockpiles” → “Grav-Sync” (reflecting Sigma extraction technology and the drone collection system).

Other Developments

Behind the scenes, we’ve been locking in the foundation that lets everything ship cleanly at scale. We’ve set up Steam infrastructure for internal testing builds, and playtesting workflows have shifted there.

On the backend, player data is now unified and security has been hardened with stronger encryption and core infrastructure improvements. Anti-cheat integration and enforcement tools are in progress. Telemetry and stats tracking are operational, giving us real data for informed balance refinements. We’re also targeting performance and stability aggressively — profiling and reducing hitching on both client and server, improving boot and session flow, and upgrading crash reporting with symbolicated dumps so issues are faster to trace and fix. We’ve also built a robust batch render pipeline for dynamic thumbnails and 360° weapon spins, accelerating polished content delivery.

China launch prep is also moving forward with infrastructure and partner work on track.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this update and look forward to hearing your thoughts, comments, and questions. Until next time!

Thanks,

Team Shrapnel

Hey everyone,

October kept us busy. We made solid progress on core gameplay systems, cleared out several bugs that had been hanging around, and pushed forward on the foundational tech that’ll carry us through to launch. We hit a few bumps along the way, including one critical issue that temporarily paused playtesting. For a while, the team-marker UI disappeared/went wonky, so you couldn’t tell who was a teammate and who wasn’t — not great for playability... That bug is now fully resolved, and despite the interruption, momentum stayed strong throughout the month.

Here’s some of what’s been happening:

Matches Feel Less Predictable

One of the biggest changes this month: stockpiles now spawn in random locations instead of fixed/pre-determined spots. This might sound simple, but it fundamentally changes how matches play out. No more memorizing the “optimal” route. Now you actually have to scout, adapt, and communicate with your team each phase. Early feedback has been solid — matches feel more dynamic and less like players are following a script.

We also updated the stockpile visuals to make them easier to spot in the chaos of a firefight, removing the old red flares and introducing a cleaner, more distinctive design. It not only looks sharper but also reduces visual noise, helping you make faster decisions when every second counts, and reinforcing stockpiles as a key objective in the game loop.

On the map side, we made some targeted balance adjustments based on playtest feedback:

• We’ve been trying out a dozen new stockpile combinations and even opened up gameplay in the Station Concourse above Trainyard

• Added cover near the train station to ease a nasty choke point
• Opened up a new path to the overpass for more flanking options
• Improved rooftop cover on the hotel

Together, these updates noticeably improve how engagements feel. Every change came directly from tester feedback and moves us closer to that smooth, tactical flow we’re chasing.

Cleaning Up the HUD

We’ve been deep in HUD work this month. When you’re in the middle of a firefight, bad UI kills your ability to make smart plays. We’ve been iterating on layouts, exploring different icon styles, and implementing better marker logic for objectives, teammates, and items.

The weapon icon pass is complete, we’ve landed on a consistent visual language for weapons, grenades, and med pens that should make loadout management way clearer. The broader HUD overhaul is still in progress, but marker rules are in and working.

We cleaned up how Sigma Power is displayed and tracked, making it easier to see how much Sigma you have, when abilities are cooling down, and when they level up. The updated UI makes everything feel far more intuitive during live play.

Finally, we rolled out a refreshed lobby and in-match UI. It’s not just more polished (though it certainly looks it), but it also gives us a solid framework to integrate player profiles, Operator progression and battle pass systems cleanly as we get closer to launch and beyond.

Content & Environments

The shrine environment is done — interior modeling, lighting, and collision work all wrapped. We also fixed some terrain exploits (no more standing on plants to peek outside the map).

We also made progress on the character viewer/asset renderer, which helps us review assets internally and generate marketing imagery more efficiently.

And yes — we’ve started early work on a cinematic! But more on that when we’re ready to show it off.

Operators & Abilities

We are introducing a new base Sigma ability, which has been a technically interesting challenge and reinforces our goal that each Operator should feel meaningfully different to play. We’re building a short-range force push that feels like a sudden burst of wind. It works as both a tactical disruption tool and a mobility option, letting the player rocket jump to reposition mid-fight. The complication? Getting the collision handling right and preventing weird exploits (no rocket-jumping off slim platforms or bizarre window interactions) but progress is steady.

We’re also working on distinct audio cues for ability tier-ups during matches. Hearing your power spike should feel satisfying and give you instant feedback without needing to check the UI.

Long-Term Systems Taking Shape

Battle Pass MVP is being polished. We’ve implemented the purchase flow, details page, and main screen design. It’s not fully tuned yet, but having the core in place means we can start testing reward pacing and perceived value with player behavior.

We’re also actively building out the Account Progression System: a unified way to track your progress across modes. This is critical for retention and live-ops (events, rewards, milestones). Design and direction are locked and have started backend work.

Public player profiles are in progress too. These will be your identity hub in Shrapnel — customizable designs, kill cards, backgrounds, progression displays, plus moderation tools to keep the community healthy. It’s a large multi-part effort, but it’s one of those foundational pieces that’ll matter a lot once the game is live.

We’ve also been working on the Printer front-end and schematics UI, and it’s an important part of tying together progression, ownership, and rewards.

Economy & Monetization

We spent serious time building the economic foundation for launch, working to create a system that feels clear, fair, rewarding, and long-term sustainable. This included detailed modeling around marketplace fees, Battle Pass structures (with a meaningful free track), and how our currency systems interact with rewards, sinks, the marketplace, etc.

We are also in discussions about how to best approach the future utility and direction of the Genesis Operators collection and evaluating the technical feasibility of each item proposed.

Other Updates

We had a quiet but important breakthrough this month: we solved a long-standing issue that was blocking consistent local testing. This doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s a big velocity unlock allowing faster iteration across the team.

Network profiling is ongoing — we’re tackling multicast issues and optimizing traffic to improve hit registration and responsiveness. We’ve also developed a technical plan for Matchmaking MVP, with a review scheduled for early November.

Behind the scenes, we also completed a major technical migration: all Sigma abilities are now running on Unreal’s Gameplay Ability System (GAS) instead of our old legacy setup. GAS gives us cleaner code, easier balancing, and more reliable ability triggering.

With daily updates, bugs are inevitable. We made solid progress on bug cleanup this month and adjusted our daily reporting to focus on Blocked/Urgent/Critical issues. It’s helping us stay laser-focused on what matters most at the current moment.

What We’re Still Tackling

A few known issues are getting extra attention from the team and still actively being worked on:

• Visual Iterations to Sigma Abilities: We’re improving VFX across several Sigma abilities to ensure the attacker’s visibility isn’t blocked or cluttered.
• Hit registration and TTK consistency: This directly affects how the game feels, so it’s a top priority.
• Weapon reload and ADS behavior, including some edge cases around vaulting and camera positioning.

Business, Operations & Marketing

We’ve finalized our budget models to align with key KPIs. We’re also implementing attribution and telemetry tools that would allow us to make data-driven decisions on user acquisition, monetization, in-game content strategy, and more. The Marketing team has locked in a shortlist of agencies experienced in PC gaming launches and user acquisition, plus a specialist studio for high-fidelity gameplay capture and creative production.

We’re not trying to hype every little thing we do. We just want to keep you informed about what’s actually happening: the good, the difficult, and the in-progress. Thanks for sticking with us. Keep an eye on Discord, as we’ll have playtesting opportunities for Operator Holders coming in December!

More updates soon,

The Shrapnel Team

We’re excited to kick off our monthly blog series, where we’ll share some of the highlights from what the team’s been working on as we move closer to our public launch in Q1 2026. Our goal is to provide some transparency and keep you in the loop along the way!

We’re excited about some of the weapon changes! By refining several key systems, we’re honing in on our target, and every tweak feels like a step closer to that ShrapShooter feel!

Recoil
We’ve removed the random horizontal recoil from weapons and replaced it with a new data-driven recoil pattern system. Each weapon now follows a defined curve, allowing players to learn and master recoil control over time instead of fighting against randomness. This makes aiming feel more skill-based and consistent. We’re still iterating and fine-tuning these patterns as we gather feedback.

Spread & Accuracy
We’ve revisited how spread behaves during different player states. Spread now dynamically adjusts depending on whether you’re hip-firing, aiming down sights (ADS) or crouched. The first shot always lands precisely where aimed (except for shotguns, which naturally fire multiple pellets).

Player States & Recoil Behavior
Recoil now also accounts for stance and aim state. When aiming down sights or crouching reduces recoil. Outside ADS, recoil uses only the weapon’s base data. We’ll continue balancing these modifiers to ensure each weapon feels distinct yet fair across all player states.

Additional Fixes & Changes
We’ve tried out different reticle designs & hit marker iterations. We’ve also fixed a muzzle-to-reticle offset so shots now align more accurately with the crosshair. Some recoil and spread effects are still being updated, further polish is expected in upcoming builds. Mouse wheel scroll for weapon switching has been also added.

Bullet Accuracy & Shot Resolution
The team wasn’t happy with the feel of accuracy in some of the combat scenarios, and the community’s feedback reflected that too! We’ve been digging in to investigate and improve the model since Shrappy Holidays.

We’ve improved how the game handles bullet logic and hit detection to make shots register more accurately and consistently. The new shot resolution system streamlines how bullet impacts and damage are processed between server and client, reducing network load and improving performance. We’ve also added bullet pooling, which reuses bullet objects instead of spawning new ones, boosting efficiency during firefights. With these updates complete, testing is underway to fine-tune accuracy and performance in live matches.

Besides weapon tuning, there’s other key areas we’ve worked on, including:

Audio

We’ve made serious progress on this front: added and improved voice-over (VO) lines, match announcements like “Storm incoming” and the welcome sequence. We’ve added and rebalanced UI sound effects for clearer feedback during gameplay. Updated audio cues for deposit and stealing bars, as well as team and enemy canister events, making them easier to track in action. And we’ve continued refining the audio mix to ensure environmental sounds and system cues feel cohesive and immersive (e.g. splashing footfalls).

UI & Visual Feedback Fixes

We’ve tried out different reticle designs & hit marker iterations. Icons and stockpile markers now fade or vanish when centered on the screen to reduce visual clutter. We’ve also added a system to automatically clear dropped loot (ammo, medpens, and grenades) after a short period. This helps improve performance and allows us to better assess ammo availability and balance during matches.

Art

On the content side, we’re planning and scheduling upcoming content and its production, including new weapon skins, charms and more. On the map side, we’ve polished interior spaces / improved set dressing, fixed collision issues, and adjusted lighting and brightness on the night map for better visual balance. We’ve also added a new Operator (Doug, The Rookie), who’s already become the source of plenty of inside jokes and funny animation bugs.

Other Updates

We recently ran a First-Time User Experience Simulation to evaluate progression pacing, mission success, and how Operators and rewards are unlocked. This helps us better understand the new player journey and identify opportunities for smoother onboarding. And Doug will actually be part of many player’s first experience with Shrapnel! He is the default Operator, if players haven’t purchased one/don’t own one.

Game Economy

On the economy side, we’ve taken a deep dive into Extraction Pack content and METAL*, to ensure it integrates meaningfully within the ecosystem. We’ve also built a simulation model to validate economic outputs and defined faucets and sinks for METAL*, while establishing fiat interactions across the system.

There’s still a lot of work ahead, including further simulations and an upcoming audit, but progress has been strong. Current and future focus areas include:

• Playable/In-game Operators Progression System
• Reward Asset Allocation
• Zone Skins
• Schematic+Printer* Modeling
• Operators Genesis NFT Collection — Future Utility
• Mission Content and Evergreen Onboarding
• Recycler* Tier and Reward Modelling

We’re laying important groundwork now to ensure the game’s long-term systems feel rewarding, balanced, and sustainable.

* Name change in progress

While we’re proud of the progress, there’s still plenty in motion as we continue marching toward launch! Also, kindly note, this update doesn’t cover everything happening behind the scenes. Thanks for following along on our journey, your support keeps us moving! See you in the next monthly update!