Phoenix Point arrived on Steam five years ago, and it truly warms our hearts to see a steady flow of new players still discovering it - as well as many veterans returning after a long break. This anniversary felt like the perfect moment to celebrate, and we wanted to show our appreciation by bringing you a new free update, along with a 60% discount for newcomers.

Below you’ll find the areas we focused on for this update, followed by the full patch notes. But before diving in, we owe a major shoutout to the Terror From The Void mod and all of its contributors.

For more than three years, the TFTV team has been tirelessly updating and refining their vision of Phoenix Point - polishing existing systems, rebalancing missions and classes, adding brand-new mechanics, and creating great additional tools. With TFTV you can find a huge range of optional gameplay adjustments, UI enhancements like a screen showing every available haven recruit, redesigned missions and classes, the terrifying Revenants (nightmarish replicas of your fallen soldiers), and countless other improvements.

In fact, many of the changes in this update were inspired by TFTV. If you enjoyed Phoenix Point, we highly recommend trying the mod.

Since large updates can easily break large mods, we worked closely with the TFTV team throughout development. The result is full compatibility, even for ongoing TFTV campaigns.

If you’re playing with mods - such as Terror From The Void or the Officer Class Mod - please make sure you have the latest versions installed.

If your mods don’t update automatically, simply exit and restart Steam.

One of the main issues we identified is that the campaign - especially in the mid and late game - can start to drag, feeling repetitive and overstretched. Phoenix Point is packed with content, but sometimes that content extended the campaign more than it enriched it.

Because the research system controls so much of your progression, we wanted to help players advance more smoothly without cutting content. To that end:

• All research times have been reduced by 20%.

• Construction time for the major faction-ending project buildings has been reduced by 50%.

These changes help the campaign reach its more interesting decision points sooner, without rushing players or removing depth.

A common frustration for players - especially newcomers - was ending up with just slightly fewer resources than needed to restock basic ammo. This created tedious loops instead of meaningful strategic choices. To ease this unnecessary pressure and help players focus on the broader game, we’ve made the following adjustments:

• Reduced ammo production costs by 20%.

• Reduced facility construction costs by 20%

This should ease early-game pressure and allow players to invest in their bases and squads more freely.

Haven Defense missions are an important part of the game: they’re a way to earn resources, diplomacy, and reveal Pandoran bases. However, the sheer frequency of them - combined with the inconsistency of their difficulty - often made them feel repetitive rather than rewarding.

Instead of reducing their number (which would break multiple progression loops), we made targeted systemic improvements:

• Threat level is now calculated not only from the attackers’ strength, but also from the difference between attacker strength and Haven Defense strength, leading to more logical and fair battles.

• Training and Elite Training Centers now grant improved defensive structures, making havens more capable of defending themselves.

All this means Haven Defense missions now feel more optional, giving you breathing room to focus on higher-priority objectives.

We also wanted the strategic layer to be smoother and more intuitive.

The manufacturing screen is now far easier to read and manage:

• Ammo is displayed directly on the same row as its associated weapon, reducing clutter dramatically.

• A new button has been added to reorder items in the manufacturing queue more easily.

For years, players wondered what happened to partially used magazines after missions. Previously, these were hidden until they combined into a full stack - which caused confusion.

Now:

Partial magazines are displayed clearly, with a proper interface designed specifically for them.

We’ve removed one of the hidden sources of late-game enemy scaling:

• Pandorans no longer receive evolution points when their bases are destroyed or when they lose battles to you.

This keeps the long-term difficulty curve fairer and more predictable.

These missions often felt too unforgiving. We wanted to preserve the tension, but reduce the randomness of instant soldier deaths.

Changes include:

• Deployment points are now weighted toward reinforcements rather than initial deployment.

• Buffer zones have been added between the rescued soldier and nearby aliens.

The rescued soldier is now more likely to survive long enough for you to reach them - but extraction will require more planning.

A long-standing issue caused ambush missions to become extremely rare after loading a save. This has now been fixed, so expect to encounter more of them.

To make ambushes more rewarding and strategic:

• Some maps now include loot crates containing valuable items - if you’re willing to take the risk.

• Surviving an ambush now grants Skill Points, which you can distribute among your squad.

Cybernetics repairs were often prohibitively expensive. To encourage players to actually use these systems:

• Repair costs have been reduced by 50%.

The ancient weapon progression was atmospheric, but too long and too complex, often slowing down campaigns significantly.

To streamline it:

• You no longer need to control processing sites to use ancient resources.

• Processing sites have been removed from the Geoscape (existing saves will still show them, but inactive).

• Processing site maps have been merged into regular resource site missions.

• Excavation of ancient sites no longer costs resources or time - missions can begin immediately.

Umbra enemies also received a round of adjustments aimed at smoothing out difficulty spikes while keeping their encounters tense and memorable.

• Arthron Umbras now deal slightly less damage.

• Triton Umbras have been reworked to heal on hit and move even more fluidly, but their attack cost has been increased from 1 AP to 2 AP to keep them in check.

• All Umbras now die instantly when they come into contact with fire, regardless of remaining HP.

Festering Skies has always introduced a unique tension with the Behemoth - a threat so large that players often felt they had little control over its destructive path. One of our biggest goals for this update was to give you more meaningful ways to interact with, disrupt, and counter the Behemoth’s behaviour.

One of the biggest steps was refining how and why the Behemoth attacks havens. Previously, these attacks could feel sudden or inevitable. Now, the Behemoth only targets havens if a Pandoran flyer has visited them and successfully returned. This creates a clear strategic window: if you intercept the flyer before it makes it back, the haven remains safe.

To reinforce this sense of influence, we broadened the systems that generate disturbance for the Behemoth.

You’ll now gain disturbance not just from air battles, but also:

• When destroying Pandoran bases

• When havens defend themselves during Behemoth attacks

These additional sources make the Behemoth cycle feel more dynamic. Even if it moves into a region you cannot reach immediately, the world still pushes back, and your actions elsewhere still matter.

To support all this, we improved the UI for the air game. It’s now much easier to track enemy aircraft and inspect their weapon loadouts - a crucial part of preparing your own aircraft to counter specific threats.

Myrmidon Adjustments

The Myrmidon has also received a significant redesign to make its behaviour more interesting and more consistent with the theme of the DLC. Ground movement has been reduced while flight range improved, leading to encounters where they take to the air far more often. This changes overwatch possibilities and limits their follow-up attacks, shifting the overall dynamics of these encounters.

Their base stats have been unified across all three variants, with the body receiving increased durability - and disabling it now results in the immediate death of the Myrmidon. The wings remain fragile, giving you the option to ground them by disabling flight and further crippling their movement even when you can’t eliminate them outright. Myrmidons are now also fully capturable, allowing you to gain the vivisection damage bonus if you choose to research one, and to process them into food or mutagens depending on your needs.

Our main focus here was improving the Acherons.

They were originally designed as support units that complicated the battlefield with strange abilities and disruptive effects. But in practice, they often dominated encounters by repeatedly summoning reinforcements or resurrecting corpses - quickly overwhelming squads and forcing a “kill this immediately or lose” situation. We wanted to preserve their identity while reducing this oppressive behaviour.

The first step was making them easier to bring down: their husk armor has been reduced significantly. But the more important change was separating their signature abilities so that no single variant can do everything at once.

• Call Reinforcements is now exclusive to Asclepius and Asclepius Champion

• Resurrect Corpses is now exclusive to Achlys and Achlys Champion

Both abilities now also have increased AP and WP costs, which prevents them from spamming these actions endlessly. They can still disrupt your plans, but they no longer take over the entire mission.

To keep them dangerous and interesting, we expanded their basic attack options with effects like mist, poison, and acid, and reshuffled their supporting abilities to create more variation between encounters. Acherons should now feel like a tactical puzzle again - unsettling and unpredictable, but fair and beatable.

This isn’t everything. The full list of bugfixes and adjustments can be seen here:

https://testx-steam.c5game.com/steamstore/news/app/839770/view/538872373928003253?l=english

We would love to hear how the game feels now and what future improvements you’d like to see.

Join us on Discord!

Quality of Life Changes

• Partially full magazines are now displayed in base storage.

• Updated hover information for ammo stored in base storage.

• In Manufacturing, ammo is now placed in the same row as its corresponding weapon to reduce clutter.

• Direct rearrangement of items in the manufacturing and research queues is now allowed.

• Remaining exact ammo for NPCs is now displayed in Tactical.

• New UI for Aircraft and Flying Pandorans that makes their weapon information easily accessible.

• No need to open Haven Info to trigger a “Steal Aircraft” mission.

Geoscape Changes

• Pandorans no longer gain bonus research points for losing bases or battles.

• Threat level on Haven Defence missions now depends on attacking vs. defending force strength.

• Increased Haven Defense strength bonuses from:

  • Training Zone: 4 → 6

  • Elite Training Zone: 6 → 8

  • TW Fortress: 6 → 8

• Faction-vs-Faction haven attack frequency (during war) reduced.

• All Phoenix research times reduced by ~20%.

• Ammo costs reduced by ~20%.

• Base building costs reduced by ~20%.

• Factions’ Final Building time reduced by 50%.

• All grenade production times set to instant.

• Manticore and Masked Manticore range increased 2500 → 2600

• Cybernetics repair cost reduced by 50%.

• Removed the requirement to control a Processing Site in order to use gathered Ancient Resources.

• Removed Processing Site POIs from the Geoscape.

• Removed excavation time and resource cost for excavating Ancient Sites.

• The Behemoth now attacks Havens only if one of its flyers has visited and returned to it.

• Additional Behemoth disruption points awarded for:

  • Destroyed Nest: +1

  • Destroyed Lair: +2

  • Destroyed Citadel: +3

  • Behemoth attacks a haven: +1

  • Behemoth corrupts a haven: +1

  • Behemoth destroys a haven: +2

• Berith weapon count reduced to 3.

• Abaddon weapon count reduced to 4, HP reduced to 1100.

Tactical Changes General

• Rescue Soldier Mission adjusted to prevent rescued soldiers from being immediately wiped out mid/late game.

• Ambush missions now give 120 SP and include several loot crates.

• Goo Duration: 3 → 2 turns.

• Danchev MG: now applies 3 shred per bullet and range increased 9 → 17.

• Umbras now instantly die from fire weapons.

• Ancient Processing tactical maps merged into Ancient Mining map pool.

• Acheron default target point adjusted to be around the husk instead of the head.

• Resurrect Corpses no longer spawns Pandorans hosting Umbras.

• Medkits can now remove Bleed, Poison, and Paralysis from Mutoids.

Pandorans Balancing Changes 

Chiron’s Blast Abdomen

• Range 40→28

Chiron’s Crystal Abdomen

• HP 800→600

• Range 40→28

Scylla’s Sonic Blast

• AP 1→2

• WP 2→10 

General Umbra Rules

• Umbras now instantly die from fire weapons

Arthron Umbra 

• Damage 90→70

• Piercing 20→10

• Speed 26→25

Triton Umbra 

• Damage 90→Syphon 70

• Piercing 20→0

• Speed 26→29

• AP 1→2

Myrmidon (all types)

• Total HP 180, WP 18

• Speed 8 (12 with intact wings)

• Perception 20→30

• Torso: HP 180, Armor 10; no stat bonuses

• Wings: HP 65, Armor 10; +2 Speed per wing; proper flight-loss indicators

• Abilities : Take Flight range 20→23

• Other: Myrmidons are now capturable

Acid Myrmidon

• Acid damage 50→20

• Death explosion 50→20

• Gains Acid Immunity

Poison Myrmidon

• Gains Poison Immunity

Acheron (Base)

• Removed Call Reinforcements

• Husk: Confusion Cloud; HP +40; Armor 10→0

• Corruptive Spray: Range 15→30, +Acid 10, mist cone, 2/turn

• Leap: 1/turn

Acheron Prime

• Total HP 900→870

• Removed Call Reinforcements

• Husk: Confusion Cloud; Removed Armor Restore; HP +40, Armor 10→0  

• Arms: Corruptive Spray +Acid 20, range 30, mist, 2/turn

• Leap: 1/turn

Acheron Achlys

• Total HP 900→970

• Removed Call Reinforcements

• Husk: Pepper Cloud; Removed Corruptive Cloud

• Resurrect Corpses: AP 2→3, WP 10→12,  

• Husk HP 600→720, Armor 20→0,  

• Arms changed to Goo Spray: Damage 10→30, Goo 10→1, +Acid 10, +Poison 20, 3/turn, HP 150→200 

Acheron Achlys Champion

• Total HP 900→870

• Removed Call Reinforcements

• Head: HP 1200→1180 

• Husk: Pepper Cloud; Removed Corruptive Cloud;

• Resurrect Corpses: AP 2→3, WP 10→12

• Husk HP 750→870, Armor 20→0

• Arms (Goo Spray): Damage 10→30, Goo 10→1, +Poison 30, 3/turn

Acheron Asclepius

• Total HP 900→910

• Call Reinforcements: AP 1→2, WP 5→12

• Husk: Removed Resurrect Corpses; HP 600→720, Armor 20→0

Acheron Asclepius Champion

• Total HP 1200→1120

• Call Reinforcements: AP 1→2, WP 5→12, Endurance 13→12

• Husk: Removed Resurrect Corpses + Corruptive Cloud; HP 750→870, Armor 20→0

• Torso Endurance 15→14

• Arms swapped to Neurotoxic Spray: WP requirement 2→0, 3/turn, HP 200→150, Armor 20→0

• Fixed bug preventing players from using character skills and causing enemies to skip turns when loading a tactical save.

• Fixed auto-loss bug when defending a Phoenix Base from a faction attack.

• Fixed a bug where players were unable to extract a vehicle during a specific Rescue Soldier mission

• Fixed characters taking excessive damage when moving vertically in fire (jumping/falling through flames).

• Fixed bug making Ambushes extremely rare after loading a save.

• Fixed a bug where actors could move into walls in certain Alien Base maps

• Fixed missing exit zones in a Disciples of Anu Elite Training haven defense mission and in the “Second Initiation”.

• Fixed bases not automatically powering on after repairing a damaged Energy Generator.

• Fixed a bug where Instil Frenzy played the wrong sound on activation 

• Fixed Cyclops freezing on death.

• Fixed Legacy of the Ancients final cinematic not playing.

• Fixed Umbra sometimes spawning even when its host dies from fire.

• Fixed Umbra Triton inventory icon and description.

• Fixed all Acheron types unlocking at the same time instead of progressively during the campaign.

• Fixed incorrect % value in Confusion Cloud description.

• Fixed Corrosive Cloud affecting Acheron allies.

• Fixed Corrosive Cloud applying corruption incorrectly.

• Fixed Corruption Cloud not applying corruption.

• Corrected an issue with autosaves.
  
• Fixed the Change Resolution field not showing the setting correctly.
  
• Fixed names on some cinematics in the cinematics library.
  
• Fixed a texture on the new Pandoran Technician skin.

• The early adopters that believed in the vision Julian and the team had for our game, your support meant everything!
  
• Our Community Council members who helped guide and shape the various features and content!
  
• The streamers and content creators across the globe that shared their campaigns through thick or thin!
  
• And all of our players and fans or anyone that gave us a try and told a friend to play. We’re here because of you and hope to continue to delight you with new experiences in the future!

• Tactical Difficulty: Players can now make the tactical game easier or harder, separate from the global Geoscape difficulty.
  
• Mission Threat Level: Missions that leverage threat levels can be made more or less difficult
  
• Human Population Census (HPC) AKA the Doomsday Clock: If the timer makes you nervous, you can set up the game so that the population drops slower or turn it off altogether, giving you more time to ready your assaults. Or, for an added challenge, you can speed it up!
  
• Manufacture Speed: This allows the ability to produce items faster, slower, or instantly.
  
• No Ammo: Choose to remove ammunition clips, effectively allowing all weapons to infinitely reload, which we expect may change the game pretty dramatically.

• Fixed a major issue with save files where destroyed Pandoran aircraft could lead to a corrupted save file with active DLC3.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Masked Manticore special mission disabled the current active one at an explored site, if the Masked Manticore was on it.

• Fixed the Aspida and Armadillo AI not using weapons properly.
  
• Fixed several issues with Achievements - All the Live Ones, Master Scientist, Scientific Rigor should now complete correctly.
  
• Fixed an issue with XP distribution on completed missions if a Vehicle is in the squad.
  
• Fixed a rare stuck where playing missions might trigger DLC1 encounters when DLC1 content is disabled.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Acheron Resurrection animation of Pandoran units did not play correctly in certain LoS cases (DLC4)
  
• Fixed an issue where the Mutog Enraged status did not apply buffs to speed and damage correctly
  
• Fixed an issue where Tired and Exhausted statuses did not apply debuffs correctly after mission restarts.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Recover ability could not be used inside Vehicles
  
• Fixed an issue where Faction Aircraft did not repair when idle on their Faction Havens. (DLC3)
  
• Fixed an issue where the Repair button on buildings could not be clicked properly