The September Quality Of Life Update Is Live!
Killing Floor 3 · published · build 24979244
Welcome, Nightfall!
We've been closely monitoring your feedback and digging into the data to bring you our September 2026 Update. This patch includes an array of Quality of Life (QoL) improvements, bug fixes, and targeted balance changes across Perks, Weapons, and Zeds.
Quality of Life Highlights
UI, HUD, & Menus
The scoreboard has been split from the "pause" screen, allowing users to bring it up and view it during gameplay without stopping their movement.
The Boss Name will now show on the Wave Title card
Gameplay/General
Players can now choose the weekly difficulty (such as Hell on Earth)\[/p]
- Smoother gameplay while shaders compile
Fixed audio stutter and frame hitches caused by shader compilation. During gameplay, compilation now runs on a limited set of efficiency cores at reduced priority so it no longer fights the game for CPU time
Shaders needed for what's actually on screen now jump to the front of the compile queue, reducing one-off hitches when new effects or enemies appear
Fixed players being held at spawn for minutes on some machines because the game was waiting on background shader work that didn't need to block anyone
Perks & Balance
Addressed several overperforming items such as targeted Gunslinger Skills while improving underperforming areas such as ground fire.
Several key fixes around the Ninja Gadget to help make it feel better and perform as intended
Shader Optimization
First-launch shader optimizations. The game now uses every available CPU core while compiling shaders on the title screen
Fixed a rare startup issue where the game filtered the bundled shaders by the wrong game usage mask
The title screen now caps its own frame rate while shaders are optimizing, so the menu stops competing with compilation for CPU time
Changing your graphics settings now rebuilds the affected shaders at a much faster rate in foreground mode
Players on the Low graphics preset no longer compile shaders for every other quality preset as well
Reduced the total number of shader variants by consolidating weapon, environment, and effects materials
Balance Updates
GENERAL
Explosive Situation: Explosion radius reduced by 30%.
ZEDS
Husk
Mortar ability updated to not trigger on Normal difficulty.
Hover Fireball Volley ability updated to not trigger on Normal difficulty.
Desperation Mode updated to increase movement speed by 1.75x.
Desperation Attack baseline damage of explosion increased from 25 to 65 (a 2.6x damage increase). The explosion no longer modifies damage depending on distance from the center.
Fixed an issue with incorrect trigger chances set for the Mortar and Hover Fireball Volley abilities.
Fixed an issue preventing the Husk from sprinting when its Desperation Mode is active.
Fixed an issue with the Husk Desperation Mode and Desperation Attack playing their animations faster than intended.
Moorcroft
Added additional information to the codex about the barrier being neutral to damage types.
WEAPONS
Groundfire Buffs:
All weapon groundfires have had their damage increased from 10 damage per tick to 25-35 depending on the weapon.
Trenchgun Groundfire:
Fixed a bug where the Trenchgun's groundfire wasn't dealing damage.
Sonic Tracer Ammo Mod:
Fixed an issue where the mod wasn't marking targets or dealing bonus damage in the secondary fire mode of the X295 Wraith, SCAR EIR, Stormguard, & Artemis Marksman.
Also addresses marked enemies not receiving bonus damage from Sonic Tracer rounds
Underbarrel Laser & Underbarrel Laser (Pistol) Mods:
Fixed an issue where players could be blinded by the red dot(s) drawn in the world if the targeted location was too close. The red dot will no longer appear on targets that are very close to the modded weapon.
PERKS
General Perk Changes
Trader Time Gadget & Health Refresh:
Players will now only gain health and gadget energy restoration the *first* time they interact with a trader pod during each trader time. This prevents exploits where players refreshed gadget skills by repeatedly interacting with the trader.
Weapon Cost Reduction Skills (Preferred Customer & Custom Made):
These skills will now also reduce the sell price of the weapon by the same percentage, removing an exploit where weapons could be sold at a profit.
Gunslinger
Gravity Grenade:
Pull radius decreased by 40%. Stun affliction amount has been reduced (most noticeable against bosses).
Skill - Center of Gravity:
Pull radius increase buffed from {11/15/20/25%} to {15/20/25/30%} to compensate for base radius nerfs.
Skill - Lucky Shot:
Trigger explosion radius decreased from 350uu to 225uu. A small 1.25s cooldown has been added between allowed triggers.
Skill - Glass Cannon:
Now only applies while using pistol weapons. Fixed an issue where the damage increase wasn't applying properly to secondary and tertiary firing modes.
Skill - Monster Bash:
Fixed an issue where the damage increase wasn't applying properly to secondary and tertiary firing modes.
Skill - Health Kick:
Healing reduced from {25/30/35/40} to {15/20/25/30}.
Skill - Speed Demon:
Movement speed reduced from {25/30/35/40%} to {15/20/25/30%}. *(Also fixed an issue where it did not work with some shotguns).*
Skill - Custom Made:
Cost reduction per weapon mod reduced from {4/5/6/7%} to {3/4/5/6%}.
Skill - Automagic:
Gadget damage reduction changed from 70% to 80%. Bullet amount increased from {4/6/8/10} to {6/8/10/12}.
Skill - Trick Shot:
Now has 70% damage reduction at all levels (previously {70/60/50/40%}). Ricochet distance slightly increased.
Skill - Stockpile:
Capped at a maximum of 10 stacks, reducing max armor gain from {30/45/60/75} to {20/30/40/50}.
Skill - Health Expert:
Now only applies while using pistol weapons. *(Also fixed an issue where it did not heal the player when using explosive damage).*
Skill - Stopping Power:
Now only applies while using pistol weapons.
Skill - Headcount:
Fixed an issue where Headcount wasn't applying correctly during Zed time.
Other Fixes:
Fixed damage buff skills not applying to weapons in double shot mode.
Fixed Dual Der Konig and Desert Eagle bash taking much longer to cooldown than other guns.
Fixed head tracker failing to consistently track headshots during Zed time.
Firebug
Skill - Extinguisher (with Trenchgun):
The original behavior of the Trenchgun applying Extinguisher on each reload was intended, but a recent exploit has been demonstrated that has caused us to re-evaluate. Extinguisher no longer applies on each Trench Gun reload and no longer works on guns without magazines.
Skill - From the Ashes:
From The Ashes has been reworked. It now has a {10/9/8/7} minute cooldown that gets reduced by 5s per kill, instead of only being usable once per match.
Fixed a UI bug where the timer cooldown showed going up instead of down when upgrading the perk
Sharpshooter
Skill - Rack 'em Up:
Skill reworked into a new skill called Target Practice
Your next shot while aiming down sights with a Ballistic or Cold weapon deals {60/70/80/90%} increased damage. The bonus is doubled against armor (8s cooldown between triggers).
Skill - Easy Prey
Now only applies to Ballistic and Cold damage.
Medic
Skill - Chemical Reaction:
Now only applies to Ballistic, Biological, and Corrosive damage.
Engineer
Skill - Scatter Plot:
Fixed a bug where Scatter Plot could work with some Ninja weapons (Kunai & Shuriken).
Bug Fixes
Stability & Performance
Resolved a Load Error 4 encountered when launching the title.
Fixed a server crash
Fixed an issue causing "Connection lost to online services" during Survival matches on HOE difficulty.
Addressed massive lag spikes encountered on the Weekly mutation "Chaos Cascade" on HoE difficulty.
Fixed an issue where clearing the PSO cache on EGS caused users to get a "Failed to authenticate" error when starting the game.
Fixed a "Server connection lost" error when late joining into a map for the first time with fresh shaders as the 6th player.
Fixed EAC (Easy Anti-Cheat) not being installed correctly via Steam
UI, HUD, & Menus
Fixed users joining a party from the friends list being transferred late to the Ready Up screen.
Fixed an issue causing the Ready-up Screen countdown to end at -1 seconds left.
Fixed the Map Select dropdown not updating to the map name when selecting an option in the matchmaking menu, and remaining accessible while matchmaking is in progress.
Fixed map selection resetting to the default choice when exiting the play tab/mission select without starting matchmaking.
Fixed the "Matchmaking" setting being invisible, then appearing set to off when selecting a map in Play Multiplayer.
Fixed "Chaos Cascade" incorrectly displaying the boss wave with dev text during wave 5 trader time.
Operational budget will no longer appear as 0 when first loading into Ready Up on consoles.
[Controller] Fixed default button layout presets resetting to Custom layout after relaunching the title.
[Controller/PC] Fixed the Back button lacking functionality when entering Keyboard Mapping with a controller.
Gameplay & Systems
Fixed a critical issue where clients would lose access to the HUD and scoreboard if they died just before the round ends.
Fixed Vulcan TA failing to apply direct impact damage during gameplay.
Fixed Melee Bash not behaving consistently, adjusting cooldowns that were too long for certain weapons.
Fixed an exploit where players could animation-cancel melee bash to create unintended, extremely high attack rates.
Addressed an issue where progressions/proficiency levels for all perks temporarily dropped with the new update.
Fixed the Headcount Achievement being tracked per Perk, which allowed progress to go backwards.
Fixed Ninja Gadget cord appearing stuck on screen when firing at the ground, and visually offsetting from targets ("Weird Grabs").
Fixed Ninja getting into a semi-broken state while sliding and activating a turret at the same time.
Fixed the Ninja Gadget bringing the Husk over the barrier without dealing the final charged punch on Onslaught.
Fixed an issue where the explosion from large Zed executions could miss Zeds within range.
Fixed players being unable to craft Heavy-Action Hammer and Refined-Action Hammer Internal mods for the Pyre .357 Firebug Sidearm custom loadouts.
Fixed 1P Medic sidearms (Dual KH-380s) slides going back after a full reload.
Primary Directive: Slaughterhouse will now be correctly limited to the Onslaught map.
Fixed inability to ping through the Medic Sanctum gadget.
Addressed two trader pings being present in Trader Time after using resupply during a wave.
The Trader trail should now always be present for all party participants.
Maps & Environments
Stronghold:
Fixed assets and 1P weapons missing after clearing PSO.
Fixed Stronghold lighting becoming extremely blown out or extremely dark.
Fixed map being selectable for Weekly Mutation after returning to Stronghold.
Prison:
Fixed Cryo lab holdout objective ring having opaque sections.
Convoy:
Fixed light ring appearing on the ground near world origin.
Oil Rig:
Fixed Zeds getting stuck in a spawn below the Mire chamber.
Onslaught:
Trader pod can now correctly be used for resupply after destroying the mire tentacles on the Mire Infestation mutation.
Visuals & Audio
Fixed bloom lighting effects from appearing especially bright during gameplay.
Fixed a yellow tinge most prominent on lingering flame VFX globally.
Fixed loading screens flickering when AMD FSR Frame Generation is turned on while compiling shaders.
Addressed audio stuttering that occurred during PSO caching on the main menu.
Fixed missing Zed Time initiation SFX.
Fixed Siren AoE scream making little to no sound.
Fixed Chimera shadows looking stretched when illuminated with a flashlight.
Fixed pre-placed letter mark stickers on the Firebug's M-97 Trenchgun and combat knife.
Weapons will no longer disappear during Boss intro cinematics.
Fixed some video settings failing to take effect unless you map traveled or died.