Black Skies · build 24745769 · published
This is the largest update since Black Skies entered Early Access, and it is the one that finishes the story. The road out now has an end, voiced the whole way, with a debrief of what you actually did when you get there. Alongside it: cold fronts that move across the map, a fire you have to earn, and a whole line of things you can make from the trees around you. Thank you to everyone who has played, filed bugs, and argued with me about tuning. This update is mostly your fault.
The story has an ending. Three new places of interest carry you east to the lookout tower and north to what is waiting there, fully voiced, with a debrief of everything you did along the way.
A full weather simulation, cold is a system now. Cold fronts build and move across the map as real disturbances. Temperature varies by across the map, and the cold runs from Chilly through Severe Cold to Freezing depending on where you stand and what is blocking the wind.
Fire system updates. Tinder comes in tiers, a packed bundle helps itself catch, and a stack that will not light now tells you why before you strike.
Live off the trees. Pine needles, pine pitch and inner bark fiber, harvested from standing trees, and a new line of things to make from them.
Carry fire with you. Craft an ember carrier, load it at a lit fire, and take the ember to the next camp.
Three new chapters continue the main storyline past the cabin: the lookout tower, the east cabin, and what lies beyond them. This story is not what you expect, and I'm not going to hold your hand through it.
A new location to reach and work through: the lookout tower.
An ending sequence with its own camera work and score.
A mission debrief that reports what you actually did, not a fixed script. Quests you skipped stay skipped.
John Walker's Mementos to find in the world, collected in the Guide with deeper insight about this man and his pain and loss.
A new fully simulated weather system using a quantum mechanics inspired information theory.
Cold fronts build and move as real disturbances in the wind field, so bad weather arrives instead of switching on.
Temperature now varies by region instead of being one global value.
A four-tier cold ladder - Chilly, Cold, Severe Cold, Freezing - driven by where you are, what you wear, and what blocks the wind.
Windbreaks matter. Trees, terrain and structures cut the wind, and open ground gives you nothing.
Snowfall reacts to wind direction and strength, with matching sounds, and stops under a roof.
Snow collects and clears on surfaces instead of falling through them.
The calendar advances properly, and weather is driven by the actual date using historical weather data.
Harvest standing trees for wood, and gather pine needles, pine pitch and inner bark fiber.
New things to make from them: pitch salve, pine needle tea, cordage, cloth strips, antiseptic, tinder bundles and a fatwood tinder kit.
Tinder comes in tiers and is not interchangeable.
Packing a bundle tightly helps it catch. A loose pile fights you.
Build an ember carrier, load it at a lit fire, and carry the ember with you. A carried ember keeps you warm while you walk.
Sitting at a fire is proper relief now, not just slower loss - it steadies you as well as warming you.
Shelter earns you back some stamina, and the better the shelter the more of it.
Eighteen new items, and they are not scattered - they arrive as three lines that feed each other. From the conifers
Pine Needles - gathered from evergreens. Tinder, or tea.
Pine Pitch - resin. Binds, waterproofs, and burns.
Inner Bark Fiber - stripped from the trunk. The raw material for cord and tinder.
The cloth line
Cloth - salvage.
Cloth Strips - cut down, and the basis of bandages, torches and splints.
Cordage - twisted from inner bark fiber when there is no rope left in the world.
Fire
Tinder Bundle - packed fiber and shavings. Catches where loose scraps will not.
Fatwood Tinder Kit - pitch-soaked, and the most reliable way to start a fire.
Tin Can - salvage, and the body of the ember carrier.
Ember Carrier (Empty) - a tin and a cord. Useless until you fill it.
Ember Carrier - loaded at a lit fire. Carries the fire with you, and keeps you warm on the walk.
Medical and food
Antiseptic - distilled from moonshine. For wounds. Only for wounds.
Pitch Salve - pine pitch and bark fiber, worked into a dressing.
Pine Needle Tea - hot, and better for you than it sounds.
Gear
Flashlight - if you can find one, hardened from EMPs.
Plus the sealed supplies and paperwork waiting in the third act, which are best left for discovery.
Crafting is sorted into six benches. Most recipes are one step; a few are chains, and the fire chain runs four deep from a single log. Bushcraft - the fire ladder, and it starts with firewood
Firewood -> Stick
Stick -> Wood Shavings
Wood Shavings + Inner Bark Fiber x2 -> Tinder Bundle
Tinder Bundle + Pine Pitch -> Fatwood Tinder Kit
Materials
Cloth -> Cloth Strips
Inner Bark Fiber x3 -> Cordage
Medical
Moonshine -> Antiseptic
Cloth Strips x2 -> Bandage
Pine Pitch x2 + Inner Bark Fiber -> Pitch Salve
Stick x2 + Cloth Strips -> Splint
Tools
Stick x4 + Cloth Strips x4 + Pine Pitch -> Torch
Tin Can + Cordage -> Ember Carrier (Empty)
Snow -> Water Canteen
Structures
Firewood x2 + Rock x6 -> Campfire
Stick x3 -> Snare Trap
Packages
Medical supplies x4 -> First Aid Kit
Water x12 -> Water Bottle Box
At the fire, not at a bench
Some things are made over heat rather than crafted from the menu.
Empty Ember Carrier, at a lit fire -> Ember Carrier
Cloth Strips -> Heat Pack
Pine Needles x2 + Water -> Pine Needle Tea
Canned Beans -> Cooked Canned Beans
Tomato Soup -> Warmed Tomato Soup
Raw Rabbit Meat -> Cooked Rabbit Meat
Every animal now runs on one behavior framework, so prey, moose and wolves react to the same world consistently.
Wolves hold territory, and both wolves and prey read wind direction.
Wolves coordinate a wear-down hunt rather than rushing you.
Animals react to gunshots.
Being caught by a moose now has real consequences.
Adaptive music built from tempo-locked layers, so the score changes with the situation instead of cutting between tracks.
Audio for doors, cameras, construction, placement and fire striking.
Overall audio pass ensures a crunchy experience
28 new entries, bringing the book to 128 across 13 categories.
The Journal now runs through the third act.
A new Special section. Every memento you find writes its own entry there, in Walker's own words.
Fire, foraging and tinder entries rewritten for the new fire updates.
This is Early Access and your feedback drives what comes next. If you hit a bug or have an idea, drop it in the Steam Community hub or our Discord. Thanks for playing.