Update 1.2 — The Demo Reborn | Early Access August 24

DEADTIDE launches into Early Access on August 24. And today, the demo is reborn.

Wishlist now — the full game arrives in 12 days. But don't wait: Update 1.2 is live, and it rebuilds the demo from the ground up.

🎯 A new goal: 3 bosses. No more surviving the timer. Hunt down 3 bosses before 20 minutes run out — crush them all and claim early victory.

⚡ Unlock Tesla — in the demo. Kill 2 bosses in a single run and the Tesla coil joins your arsenal. Chain lightning through the horde.

👹 A smarter, deadlier boss. Completely reworked AI: four attacks from minute one, random patterns, and combos that layer two telegraphs at once. Bigger danger zones. Shorter, harder fights.

🔫 Every weapon has a soul now. All 12 weapons got unique hit effects. Explosions rebuilt for mines and rockets.

📖 A tutorial that respects you. Advance tips at your own pace, gentler difficulty while learning, and the new Armory panel showing every weapon in the game.

📋 FULL CHANGELOG — v1.2

🎯 DEMO

• New end goal: kill 3 bosses OR survive 20:00 — whichever comes first
• Skull counter: your progress on screen from second one
• Early victory screen: "HORDE CRUSHED" + run summary
• Tesla unlockable in the demo: kill 2 bosses in one run
• Radiation Barrel added to the demo pool (~minute 7)
• Density ramp at minute 7 — the mid-game no longer stalls

👹 BOSS

• Attack system v4: four abilities from minute one, random patterns
• Combo system: the boss occasionally chains two attacks
• Cooldown system repaired: the boss going idle for long stretches is fixed
• Health curve rebalanced: shorter first fight, later bosses scale up
• Danger zones enlarged (shock, path-cut, acid — up to 45% of the screen)
• Visual area = damage area: you never take hits from what you can't see

🔫 WEAPONS

• Unique hit effects for all 12 weapons (shotgun spread, SMG sparks, radiation sizzle, club dust, burning embers...)
• Mine explosion rebuilt: flash + ring expanding to the damage edge + shrapnel
• Rocket explosion rebuilt: bigger, orange, single system
• Laser visual pack: 3-layer beam + muzzle flash overlap fixed
• Singularity: faster pull + unique icon + purple identity
• Tesla arrives at minute 10 + opens a 7th slot when your slots are full
• Laser arrives at minute 16
• Weapon swap league: Rocket/Tesla/Laser — swappable for each other when slots are full

📖 TUTORIAL

• Tips are now under your control: press Space to advance, they never vanish unread
• Club/E-key lesson added
• Tutorial-only gentle difficulty (fewer spawns, less damage, calmer boss)
• Power-up lesson spawns a real pickup next to you
• Armory panel: every weapon in the game at tutorial's end — including what awaits in the full version
• Outdated/incorrect texts fixed

✨ VISUALS & UI

• Victory/end screens modernized
• XP gems came alive: the boss's huge gem finally shines like a reward
• Weapon/passive separation on the HUD
• Settings menu reorganized: SOUND / DISPLAY / GAMEPLAY / LANGUAGE groups
• Dog companion attack animation: lunge + bite effect

⚙️ TECHNICAL

• Large zombies getting stuck on obstacles fixed
• Club failing to hit big-bodied zombies (Tank/Elite) fixed
• Effect budget system: the screen never turns into visual soup
• Localization lifecycle fix
• Developer logs leaking into builds cleaned up
• Dozens of smaller fixes and performance improvements

Laser and Singularity are full-version weapons — see you on August 24.

▶ Play the demo · ❤ Wishlist DeadTide