What you need to know
- The co-op survival horror roguelike dominating Steam right now, Lethal Company, just got a brand new Version 47 update.
- The patch adds brand new randomly generated challenge moons that rotate weekly and task players with collecting as much scrap as possible in one run, along with leaderboards that track which crews are able to get the most loot.
- Version 47 also reworked Thumpers a bit, buffed Bunker Spiders and Nutcrackers, and slightly nerfed Forest Keepers, Coilheads, and Jesters. Check the text below for full details on the balance changes.
- A new hallway type has been added to the factory facilities as well, with Zeekerss announcing that they'll be prioritizing the creation of new interiors for existing maps for now.
- Zeekerss hopes to "add lots of new creatures and map variation" in a future Version 50 update, which is expected to come later in 2024.
Lethal Company, the red-hot co-op survival horror roguelike that's been dominating the Steam charts ever since it launched in late October last year, just got a brand new update that brings it up to Version 47. It's the game's third major patch since its release, and also the first one of 2024.
Though developer Zeekerss called it a "small patch" on X (formerly Twitter), it's actually quite a sizable one. Not only does it make a large number of balance tweaks to Lethal Company's monsters and introduce some nifty bugfixes and quality of life improvements, but it also adds a brand new mode to play.
That mode is the highlight of the update, and features special new weekly challenge moons for players to attempt. These levels are randomly generated to an extensive degree (including your starting credits for buying gear) and use the same seed for all players, meaning that they'll have the same layout, threats, and scrap for everyone each time it's played. Notably, rather than challenging you to sell loot over multiple days to meet a quota like Lethal Company usually does, the mode simply tasks you with collecting as much scrap from the challenge moon as you possibly can. Then, your score on each attempt is recorded to a global leaderboard for that specific moon.
"The point of this is less for competition and more to give us all a shared experience. It will also give even the most seasoned employees a challenge; I have no idea what moons will be generated for the months to come, but some of them will surely be crazier than others," writes Zeekerss in the full Version 47 patch notes. "If you're using a modded client, turn off all mods to guarantee you get the same moon as everyone else."
Version 47 also includes a number of notable buffs and nerfs to Lethal Company's hostile entities, with the most significant being a rework for the Thumper that makes it slow down significantly when moving around corners, but speed up whenever it takes damage. This makes it harder to fight in straight hallways, and encourages players to get it to charge into walls. The Bunker Spider also got sizable buffs in the form of a movement speed increase whenever it's close to death, as well as a slight increase to the collision radius of its webs that slow players down and alert the Bunker Spider to their presence. The Nutcracker will now eventually start to move a bit while it's aiming its shotgun at people it's fired at multiple times, encouraging players to either kill or escape them quickly.
As for nerfs, Forest Keepers are now more likely to move away from the crew's ship after trying to hunt someone near it, and the maximum distance you can hear the Coilhead's footsteps has been raised so that attentive players have more time to react to them. The Jester also takes longer to start turning its crank, giving crews additional time to explore interiors it's in.
Zeekerss has also added a new type of hallway to the factory map type, with the solo dev announcing their current plan to focus on creating fresh interior spaces for existing maps rather than entirely new facility types. Lethal Company now has server tags for its public lobbies, too, and you can filter available servers with them.
All in all, this is quite a big update — and even greater things are on the horizon for 2023's best indie game surprise. In the Version 50 patch that's coming in the future, Zeekerss hopes "to add lots of new creatures and map variation," so you can likely look forward to plenty of additional variety that'll make one of the best PC games even better later in 2024.
