2024 was a big year for survival games, and Once Human stood out among the likes of Palworld, Valheim, Sons of the Forest, and Rust. The free Steam game continues to hold onto a hefty player base as 2025 gets underway, with even the likes of the Palworld Feybreak update not dissuading people from checking in. Developer Starry Studio has plenty of plans for the coming year, and they start with the launch of Once Human update 1.3.5, which is out now and introduces some welcome features and improvements.
The new Once Human update kicks off the year with the arrival of a long-awaited feature for the free Steam game – character deletion. If your list has been getting clogged up, you can now use the character management tool to remove those you no longer want. Once initiated, you’ll have five days to change your mind, during which time the character’s name will be held in reserve. After that period ends, it will be permanently deleted, freeing up one of your ten character slots. Note that you can’t use the character once you start the process, so be sure to take any items off them that you want to keep before you start.
The survival game’s ranching features have been given another overhaul. Animals will now require less micromanagement to keep their energy and hydration up, and food that you place into an animal trough will no longer spoil, although you cannot withdraw it once placed. Your own food should be more durable, too, as items placed into a fridge will now last 20 times longer than before.
New vehicle repair drills can be crafted at intermediate or advanced workbenches, and used to repair your vehicles’ health while away from your base. The number of furniture formulas that you can disassemble into blueprint fragments at the Designer’s Workstation has been expanded. There are new tabs in construction mode to show your recent and most-used components, and you’ll be able to see the attack ranges of traps and weapon combat facilities when building them.
Another welcome change is that all ‘new’ red dots will now be automatically cleared after looking at a tab, rather than requiring you to click on them all individually. Starry Studio also notes that any players who are missing their Christmas Once Human Twitch drops should ensure they have completed the scenario settlement and that their mailbox is not full. It says that if this does not resolve the issue, missing rewards will be reissued via the in-game mail by Friday January 17.
There’s a lot to look forward to as this year continues – Starry’s Once Human roadmap for 2025 gets underway in full later this month with the introduction of its first Visional Wheel on Thursday January 16. Each spin of the wheel will introduce new rules to transform existing scenarios. The initial phase is ‘Lunar Oracle’ and ramps up the challenge under the light of a red moon, with players having to deal with falling sanity that must be recovered by taking down enhanced Deviants.
Once Human update 1.3.5 is out now. You can play for free on Steam. Read through the full list of patch notes courtesy of Starry Studio if you’re curious to check out all the individual changes.
Make sure to get a headstart on the year with the latest active Once Human codes, and watch out for the next Once Human server wipe so you can prepare accordingly.
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