Update 0.9.3.8 (QOL Mk.II) Release Notes 5/19/2026
The Forever Winter Patch Notes — May 19, 2026
Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.
Hello Scavs,
The next QOL update (0938) is now available!
Below is a list of everything that went into this release. The primary focus was on player movement, bug fixing, and general housekeeping.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Due to weapon functionality & inventory improvements / bug fixes: all weapon presets will be deleted when you launch this update. You will receive a pop-up notification in game (in the Innards) when this happens. This will not remove any of your items. It does require you to re-customize your weapons and re-save the presets.
The next push is gonna be a ton of weapon tuning, and some more targeted AI work after that. Mother courage quests will continue in June as well as something Burst related>>
Again, we can't stress this enough, thank you for supporting the artbook and the soundtrack! Because of you, we’re able to make some LP’s and we’ll bring the first batch to SDCC 2026>>
See you in the wastes!
- Fundog Out
IMPROVEMENTS / ADJUSTMENTS
Player Movement
Player Scavs are able to strafe / move left and right while sprinting.
Movement after a mantle, vault, or climb should feel much smoother.
The stamina cost for “button mashing” during knockdowns, vaults, and climbing has been reduced.
Camera Control
The player’s camera uses a new “free cam” mode, where camera rotation is detached from the Scav’s facing direction unless specific combat actions, such as attacking, require alignment.
This can be disabled in the options menu for players who prefer the previous camera system.
There are now options to change the default 3rd person FOV, the over-the-shoulder FOV, and the sprint FOV. Each of these can be tuned separately to a desired angle.
For this first pass, the range is +/- 10 degrees from default.
We will explore allowing more flexibility and the possibility of modifying other modes in the future.
Enemy Spawning
The factions can deploy a more varied roster of units and unit compositions, added to most regions to help break up repetition.
Additional spawn checks have been implemented to reduce cases where enemies spawn directly behind players. This will continue to be worked on in future updates.
A bug has been addressed where HKs could appear based on POTENTIAL damage inflicted by players instead of ACTUAL damage inflicted.
Weapon Functionality
Iron sight / ADS fixes have been made for the following weapons to provide the intended sight picture in ADS / first-person.
XM25 Grenade Launcher
GM6 Rifle
TKB-0146 Rifle
USP Pistol
SOG Pistol
C96 Pistol
Viper Pistol
Mateo Model J Pistol
G19 Pistol
MPL SMG
Spectre SMG
Many attachments have had their positions adjusted to be correct in specific weapon customization combinations.
Miscellaneous Improvements and Adjustments
A new customization option is available to manufacture and install: the Manufacture Booster
This decreases all ITEM manufacture times by ⅓
There is now an option to disable the 180 degree spin ability for those who do not like it / are accidentally triggering it when they don’t wish to.
Various music mix and trigger adjustments have been made.
Various SFX adjustments have been made.
In-world loot icons (attached to loot-able objects) have been adjusted to require the player to be closer for them to appear.
Loot crate placement and RNG appearance has been adjusted for regions.
Hitpoints have been adjusted for HK gunships, scramblers, crawlers, and enemy turret placements.
Many mech melee attacks / ground pound criteria have been adjusted for both damage and behavior, allowing mechs to better defend themselves against targets behind them.
Players now have more health when revived by another player.
Adjusted the timed extraction logic in Scrapyard Nexus to make enemy AI investigate as intended.
Stamina stims now last slightly longer once used.
Additional Bug Fixes
Several edge case crash bugs where going from a tunnel to a region and / or going from a region to a tunnel have been addressed.
Fixed an issue where some attachments for some weaponry could attach at the wrong location with specific customization combinations.
Some issues where playing multiplayer in poor network conditions could result in the clients not having a HUD or seeing “hello world” over their head have been addressed. This will continue to be worked on in future updates. We have seen it persist in very poor network conditions such as 250 ping or more.
A bug causing HK gunship lasers to not point in the right direction for clients in multiplayer environments has been fixed.
A rare issue where Opals could choose to spawn in an invalid area (causing them to instantly explode or disappear) has been addressed.
An issue where players would sometimes have to close and re-open the crafting menu to receive instantly available crafting items has been addressed.
Fixed an issue where weapon optics could sometimes be seen thru the player character wielding the weapon when in 3rd person mode.
Fixed an issue where weaponry lasers wouldn’t replicate (you can now see your ally lasers when they aim).
Fixed several assets in the tunnels that could block AI vision, causing them to act oddly or not react to visible threats.
Fixed an issue where some options wouldn’t properly reset to defaults.
Fixed an issue where a player could get stuck in the “donating water” interface in poor network conditions.
Fixed a couple of recipes that had incorrect tags (causing multiple items to appear to be manufacturing at once in the UI).