Of all the many survival games to launch in 2024, Once Human stands out as one of the most successful. While it didn’t reach the gargantuan player peaks of Palworld, the free Steam game held onto a six-digit count of active users for many months after launch, and remains among the most-played games on the Valve platform even now. Things aren’t slowing down, however, as developer Starry Studio unveils its 2025 plans with a bulky new roadmap featuring plenty of new features.
The new Once Human roadmap was detailed during the game’s Nalcott New Year stream, where the developers discuss many of the features coming to the survival game over the course of the next 12 months. Alongside the official launch of the mobile version, there are three scenarios on the horizon, as well as a new feature designed to completely transform existing aspects of the free Steam game and some highly requested other additions such as custom servers.
The Visional Wheel system is designed to put a fresh spin on existing scenarios by adding dramatic modifiers. This kicks off with its first installment in January, ‘Lunar Oracle,’ where the rise of a blood moon sparks changes across the land. Deviants will grow stronger, while players will have to constantly fight to hold onto their ever–draining sanity. The good news is that rewards from combat, gathering, and mining will all be boosted. More Visional Wheels will roll out over the year, and you can expect new weapon builds with each refresh.
Also coming in January is the ability to change your character’s gender, and a series of build parts to transform your Enternaland into an escape room. As we move into February and March, there will be the introduction of Once Human custom servers, a long-requested feature that will allow you to tweak settings such as game difficulty to your liking. You can also expect the option to hide your backpack, as well as more Eternaland parts, this time focused on shooting minigames.
April will bring the release of Once Human mobile, and the second Visional Wheel. Starry Studio is then planning to spend May and June improving the custom server feature, as well as deploying its planned three new scenarios in an early access form. These scenarios, codenamed ‘Broken,’ ‘Purification,’ and ‘Deviation,’ will roll out over the third quarter of 2025 (that’s July through September), alongside two more Visional Wheel refreshes during the period.
The end of 2025 is set to bring a crossover event, although the team says it’s unable to give any more details on exactly what that might entail. There will be one more Visional Wheel season, however. You can also expect optimizations to the Prismverse’s Clash mode and the Way of Winter scenario as the year rolls on.
You don’t have to wait until next year for new Once Human content, however. Once Human patch 1.3.4 is out now, and includes rewards such as the new Stellar Stairway system, which allows you to claim 3,000 Starchroms per day for up to seven days, alongside an extra bonus available to claim until Tuesday December 31. You can check the latest patch notes courtesy of Starry Studio for the full list of balance changes and new cosmetics.
Alternatively, spend your holiday with some friends and dive into another of the best co-op games in 2024, or look ahead to next year and the most exciting upcoming PC games.
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