The Crimson Contract: Patch 0.9.3
Patch 0.9.3 is a big cleanup pass on multiplayer, enemy AI, and the squad helicopter drop, plus a major weapon rebalance and a stack of quality-of-life changes from recent playtests and streamer feedback. We ship updates regularly, so keep the reports coming.
What's New
- New between-wave breather: after each wave clears, a short pause lets you grab cash and loot before the next wave starts, with an HQ radio call warning you that more are inbound.
Balance & Tuning
- Big weapon rebalance. Early and mid-tier guns (handguns, SMGs, auto rifles, the LMG, and the hunting rifle) hit noticeably harder so they stay viable instead of every run funneling into shotguns. The .357 revolver in particular is now the hardest-hitting single pistol.
- Rebalanced what enemies drop. Hounds no longer drop heavy tactical gear (airstrikes, drones, sentries, mines, nukes), and runners now lean toward placeable and utility items.
- Bosses now appear on a random wave within each qualifying round instead of a fixed schedule, so runs play out differently each time.
- On Easy, bosses now hold off until round 3 (was round 2).
Improvements
- The Rendezvous screen now warns you when a boss is scheduled for the coming round, and a radio call gives you a heads-up right before it appears instead of several waves early.
- Weapon swapping is about twice as fast. You can chain swaps without waiting out the full animation.
- Tutorial popups moved to the bottom-left corner so they no longer sit on top of your character and the incoming horde.
- The squad helicopter drop has a new cinematic side-angle camera and hands control back to you the moment you touch down.
- The operative dossier is now reliable on a controller: it dismisses cleanly, auto-dismisses, and highlights the armed option.
- Tutorial text now consistently calls the enemies "the infected" instead of mixing in "zombies".
Bug Fixes
- Fixed the character customize screen only showing the male characters. The full roster, including every female option, is back, and the brief T-pose flash when switching characters is gone.
- Melee enemies now connect when you're already standing right up against them. Also fixed a phantom hit where a swing that clearly missed still dealt damage.
- Knocked-over barricades no longer leave an invisible wall you run into.
- Boomers no longer lock onto or catch downed teammates in their blast.
- Fixed animals (moose, bear, boar, wolf, and stag) dealing no damage with their attacks.
- Fixed taking hits in multiplayer from enemies that looked far away on your screen (most obvious with the fast animals).
- Enemies no longer spawn during the Town and Forest cabin intro cutscenes.
- Fixed players occasionally getting stuck frozen after being revived, especially when an AI teammate did the reviving.
- Fixed teammates sometimes appearing stuck in their downed pose back at the main menu after a match.
- Fixed two problems when a teammate disconnects mid-match: the host no longer gets stuck in a downed state, and zombies no longer keep attacking the spot where the disconnected player used to be.
- Fixed the available maps disappearing for the host and clients after returning to the menu from a match.
- Fixed teammates not being able to hear your gunfire.
- In multiplayer, clients now see the spore cloud effect and the matching health-bar swap.
- Fixed being able to hold more than one Strike Team pickup at once.
- Town map intro cutscenes no longer replay every time. They now respect whether you've already seen them.
- Other players' lobby cards now use the same translucency as your own card.
- Fixed the game freezing if you paused and resumed during the helicopter drop, and AI teammates no longer keep sliding down the rope while paused.
- Fixed hounds incorrectly appearing in round 1, wave 1 after a replay.
- AI teammates' weapons no longer stay hidden after they rappel in during the Town Last Stand post-death sequence.
- Fixed Lexa's revolver and arm pose while she revives you.
- Fixed the laser sight staying visible during the Town intro cutscene.
Want a say in what comes next? Join the Discord and help steer the roadmap.
Thanks for playing. Keep the bug reports and feedback coming.