Welcome to the latest edition of our Tyr dev updates. This one arrives alongside a major patch, so we'll explore what's changed, share some upcoming news, discuss our next dev stream, and provide details on our next tournament.
As always, we offer these dev updates in written and video formats. You can watch the video below or continue reading for the written experience. Words, am I right?
Before we begin, two quick reminders:
Our playtest is live right now. It's our longest yet at two weeks, and it's set to end on Saturday at 6pm PT.
The progression earned during playtests will not be wiped. All the tanks you unlock, progression you earn, and cosmetics you see drop will be here for you when we launch into Early Access and beyond.
We'll start with what's new in Tyr thanks to today's update.
Tyr's latest update is now live, and it's a big one. We're covering some of the major changes here in today's dev update, but you can read the complete patch notes on our Discord or on Steam in the library page of the Tyr Playtest client if you have it.
This patch introduces what we're considering the foundation of Tyr's approach to clans. In its initial form, Clans delivers the following features:
20-member Clans
A Clan chat that leverages Discord so players can chat both in Tyr and in their Discord, and the chat will persist, live, across both
Clan names as titles
The ability to unlock additional weekly Territory Scans earned through cumulative XP gains by all Clan members
We're aiming to expand the Clan system further in the future, so think of this as the foundational layer enabling you to gather your friends under a title, coordinated in squads or ranked, and earn some extra rewards.
Fortis has officially graduated from the Alpha Program into the main roster of tanks. It's now playable in Ranked (including tournaments) as long as you have it at level 20.
The cost to unlock Fortis is higher than the initial set of tanks as we continue to tune progression for Tyr. A reminder here, you can unlock tanks via XP earned with matches and SLVR earned via drops and Salutes. We also discount the cost of the tank based on the XP you earn for it. The goal is to keep vertical progression (leveling specific tanks) fast and horizontal progression (unlocking tanks) slower.
Fortis brings with it three new components (one of which returns for folks who've playtested Tyr for a while):
Energy Vent: Using your last energy charge increases Max Speed and Hull Traverse Speed by 3.5%. This effect can stack up to 5 times.
Sidescrape Gear: Increases Hull Traverse Speed by 35% while not throttling.
Hull Bellows: Your next ram after bouncing or being hit by a shot heals you for 75.
It's important to note that not all Alpha Program graduates will bring three components with them when they enter the normal roster. That number will vary by tank.
If you are an Alpha Program member with progress on Fortis, that progress will carry over once you unlock the tank. You will, however, need to unlock the tank just like players not in the Alpha Program.
We've been getting a lot of feedback concerning Valor lately, so we've made some tweaks to its kit and how its repair function works.
The Repair ability now repairs any tank hit for 160% of Valor's base Shell Damage. It also heals Valor every time for half once the ability is charged.
We've made stockpiling energy off the rip a little more difficult, though, by reducing the Starting Energy tech tree node to 5/10/15 from 10/20/30.
These changes should encourage less backline passive play and more middle and aggressive play for Valor. To help shore up that midfield aggression, we've increased Valor's base Shell Damage to 160 from 147.
Give it a shot and let us know what you think.
We're throwing a new Prototype Map into Custom Games to play during and after the playtest. It's Dunes, a map that introduces some distinct terrain shapes that hopefully make for some interesting plays and rotations.
As always, we're looking for your feedback on Dunes. 👀
What do your eyes see above besides a new map? A new skin for Alecto, of course.
We've added a slew of skins and charms with this update, and you can see more of them in the video above. Here's what's new.
Skins
Phantom's Dark Matter
Alecto's Redline
Ikarus' Game Over
Ark's Sakura
Helio's Chromatic
Charms
Valor Charm
Frag
Premium Ammo
Copy That
Universal Fix
Safety Third
Shellington
Captain Whiskers
Pair o' Dice
Forbidden Buoy
Grease Monkey
Fire up Tyr's playtest now to see the charms and skins unlockable via Territory Scan drops.
We've received a lot of feedback on the viability of Siphon Shells compared to the other options in Tyr, and we've decided to make some adjustments.
Siphon Shells now heal 15hp per shot, and that effect is tripled when you are below half health. This changes from the previous version, where Siphon Shells would heal for 3.5% of the health of the enemy you penetrate.
We're hoping that Siphon Shells feel more useful, especially in closer-to-death situations where you're nearing your last breath.
This patch also features balance changes for several tanks, but we wanted to call out a few here specifically since they've been seeing a lot of chatter from you folks.
Rook
We've adjusted a number of armor plates and their thicknesses in order to maintain a powerful hulldown hold on flat ground and while peeking over a ridge. However, the mantlet weakspot should be more accessible to pen, and Rook's armor should be more exploitable when not looking directly at your enemy.
Ark
We've reduced Ark's penetration from 100 to 90. The aim here is to balance Ark's presence on the battlefield against all vehicles. You'll still be able to hang back and snipe, but you won't be quite as oppressive as you were before today's patch.
Ikarus
We've adjusted Ikarus' ability in two ways, per the patch notes:
During the thrust phase of the ability, the vehicle will gain less altitude when thrusting straight up (or nearly so)
During the glide phase of the ability, the vehicle will lose more energy when moving straight up (or nearly so)
These changes are aimed at dialing back the effectiveness of “dive bomb loops” without meaningfully changing how the ability works in other situations. You can still loop once or twice, but you’ll lose more speed in the process, and it’ll be much tougher to string a long chain of loops together.
We've also reduced the energy cost of the ability to 30 from 35, making access to flight a bit more frequent. This should, generically, mean fewer loops and more flights.
We’ll keep tracking how the vehicle performs and feels overall. We’re excited when players find clever, unconventional uses for the kit, but those moves still need to land within the game’s intended tempo.
In case you missed it, we hosted a live dev stream on YouTube during our last playtest. We tried Expanse, answered questions as they came in via chat, and struggled with the surprisingly difficult task of talking while trying to nail clutch plays in Tyr at the same time.
Well, you liked it enough that we're doing it again. Join us for another dev stream on Friday, June 26th, from 10:30am to 12:30pm PT.
Can't make it? The stream will turn into a VOD once we're done, and both will be live at the video embedded below. 👇
Not discussed above: We made some changes to Expanse based on your feedback from the last playtest. The changes in question:
We fixed the birds so they actually appear on bushes (where they exist, of course)
We liked the birds so much that we added more (hooray birds)
We blocked off the hill at the foot of the eastern structure
We added more rock cover near the capture zones
We adjusted the positioning of bushes near the middle tunnel path to afford less sniper cover
With these changes in mind, we'd love more of your thoughts regarding Expanse. The map will be back in the map pool today (June 25th, 2026) from 2pm PT until 8pm PT.
Let us know what you think.
Our next Tyr tournament will be July 18th, 2026, and signups are now open on our Discord.
In case you don't already know, we're hosting monthly tournaments for Tyr. These tournaments are open to any playtester (so long as they sign up and either have or are placed on a team), and there's a cash prize at stake.
1st place: $1,300 USD
2nd place: $700 USD
3rd and 4th place: $250 USD each
Want to play in the next one? Head to our Discord, grab the Competitive role from the role bot (if you cannot find it, ask and we will help), then sign up for the tournament. Don't have a team yet? No problem, we also offer Free Agent teams and placements.
That's it for this dev update. See you on the battlefield. 🫡