Game update

0.3.7 — Hands Free

Echo Mates Playtest · published 2 Oct 2026, 12:03 UTC

The radio and the tracker beacon no longer compete with your tools for space — and the radio can be used without taking it out at all.

Your first radio and first beacon add their own slot to the bar when you pick them up — set apart from the ordinary ones, with the item's icon on it, selectable by its number or the wheel. Picking one up no longer costs you a tool.
A second radio or beacon goes into a normal slot as before, and moves itself into the dedicated one the moment that frees up.
The shop marks both as "DOES NOT TAKE A SLOT".

In its own slot, the radio rides on your chest instead of in your hand.
Press B to talk through it without holding anything — keep the wrench, the Core or an armful of loot in your hands and still answer the crew. Your free hand reaches up to the set in third person; in first person the radio leans into frame.
It costs you clarity: talking that way is half the volume, twice the hiss, more crackle, and lights a smaller wave. It is for answering, not for a conversation.

A receiving radio now pulses in the speaker's colour — and the creatures hear it as coming from whoever is carrying that radio, not from the person talking.
So the crew holding still beside something in the dark are given away by a teammate chatting from two rooms over. Decide who keeps a radio on, and when.

Other announcements

Game update

Echo Mates Playtest · published 2 Oct 2026, 12:03 UTC

The radio and the tracker beacon no longer compete with your tools for space — and the radio can be used without taking it out at all.

Your first radio and first beacon add their own slot to the bar when you pick them up — set apart from the ordinary ones, with the item's icon on it, selectable by its number or the wheel. Picking one up no longer costs you a tool.
A second radio or beacon goes into a normal slot as before, and moves itself into the dedicated one the moment that frees up.
The shop marks both as "DOES NOT TAKE A SLOT".

In its own slot, the radio rides on your chest instead of in your hand.
Press B to talk through it without holding anything — keep the wrench, the Core or an armful of loot in your hands and still answer the crew. Your free hand reaches up to the set in third person; in first person the radio leans into frame.
It costs you clarity: talking that way is half the volume, twice the hiss, more crackle, and lights a smaller wave. It is for answering, not for a conversation.

A receiving radio now pulses in the speaker's colour — and the creatures hear it as coming from whoever is carrying that radio, not from the person talking.
So the crew holding still beside something in the dark are given away by a teammate chatting from two rooms over. Decide who keeps a radio on, and when.