Changelog

New

• Lobby hosts can Recruit players from Players & Chat. Recruiting rooms with open seats rise to the top of the server browser and offer join invitations while you browse the menus.
• Mods can supply their own menu battle scenes and background music, with expanded support for custom movement, vision, weapons, shields and transport behavior.
• Building upgrades now announce when they start.

Balance

• Wolf Light Tank, Bison Battle Tank and Mammoth Heavy Tank now take 20% less direct-hit damage from the front and 20% more from the rear. Indirect fire, splash damage, mines and fire ignore facing.
• The maximum selectable population cap increased from 200 to 300.
• Repair Tower repair range for aircraft and naval units increased from 5.5 to eight tiles.
• Hercules Recovery Vehicle repair range for naval units increased from four to six tiles.

Improved

• Tanks automatically reverse for short moves behind their hull, keeping their front armor facing forward.
• Ships and swimming amphibious units turn along hull-sized arcs, reverse for short moves astern and coast to a stop. Larger hulls take longer to slow down.
• Turret gun barrels recoil when firing. Refreshed Veil EW Station artwork.
• Map previews support mouse-wheel and pinch zoom, plus dragging to pan. Hovering over pre-placed units and buildings shows their names.
• Screen-edge enemy markers use battle-map symbols and show unit headings.
• Mod details have a scrolling screenshot gallery, clearer metadata and install, update or uninstall actions. Installed local mods can also be inspected.
• Desktop chat has All and Team tabs, switched with Tab, and stays open after sending. Enter also opens chat in local games; channel tabs replace the /t shortcut.
• Multiplayer lobbies have a game-mode dropdown, a Mods dialog under Game config, and sharing controls beside the recruitment button.

Fixed

• Closing player slots preserves team names and colors; team selectors reflect the remaining open slots.
• Recruiting invitations no longer appear over Multiplayer's Browse page.

Removed

• The beta Find match queue has been removed. Find opponents through Browse and recruiting lobbies.

New

• Mods can add selectable factions with their own headquarters, starting builders and roster. Choose a faction for each seat in Conquest and Breakthrough, including multiplayer; saved matches retain the choices.
• Mods can add terrain appearances, selected per map in the editor, without changing gameplay rules.

Balance

• Aegis Frigate gains sonar and anti-submarine torpedoes alongside its anti-aircraft missiles and deck gun. Cost increased from 600 to 700 metal, build time from 30 to 34 seconds, population from two to three and power use from two to three.
• Orca Destroyer is no longer offered in the standard naval-yard build menus.
• Landing Craft cargo capacity increased from four to eight points of cargo weight.
• The C-47 Skytrain is now the Condor Cargo Plane, with a new four-engine jet appearance. Cargo capacity changed from five to four points of weight, with a maximum of two per passenger; Mammoths and Tempests cannot board it.
• Gator cost reduced from 240 to 200 metal.

Improved

• Replays have easier-to-reach playback controls and clickable timeline highlights for headquarters losses, nuclear launches and major battles.
• Improved performance in large battles and when loading terrain while moving the camera.
• Refreshed vehicle, ship, aircraft and turret artwork.
• Smoother camera transitions into a match.
• Low and Medium graphics presets render more sharply.
• Empty, unreserved multiplayer lobbies are labeled Free in the server browser.

Fixed

• Campaign production now follows each mission's intended roster for players and AI. Leftover sandbags no longer prevent elimination objectives from completing.
• Bayan Channel starts with two working extractors, with corrected coastlines and bridge terrain.
• Idle Engineers leave buildings already receiving repairs to their current repair source, taking over after repairs stop.
• Night lighting stays aligned with vehicles and no longer leaves floating lights when zoomed out.

New

• Veil EW Station blocks enemy radar, Scout Drone and Hornet camera feeds, and HQ Lv.2 surveillance within an eight-tile radius. Engineers and Engineer Boats can build it after a Radar Station for 600 metal. It needs full power to transmit, and its transmissions reveal its location through fog. Direct observation and sonar still work inside the field.
• Streaming HUD gives desktop spectators and replays with full-map vision a dedicated view with faction economy, army, population and production information. The camera automatically follows the action; press Esc to leave the view.

Balance

• Falcon Fighter missile damage increased from 100 to 150 per shot.
• Engineer cost reduced from 200 to 150 metal.
• A faction can no longer sell its last completed headquarters. Spare headquarters can still be sold, and unfinished headquarters can still be cancelled.

Improved

• On touchscreens, double-tap empty terrain to Attack Move with selected units. With no units selected, the same gesture selects your units in view, including builders and transports.
• Touch direct control has a separate Fire button beside the aiming stick. Hold it to fire; releasing the aiming stick keeps the last aim.
• The touch battlefield has an Engineer shortcut, clearer warhead counts and easier access to building controls and unit details.
• The replay library now has All, Favorites and Trash views. Recordings can be favorited, moved to Trash and restored individually or in groups. Permanent deletion asks for confirmation.
• The map editor can create and resize maps using size presets or exact dimensions, with a chosen terrain for new ground.
• Download registry in Settings offers Auto, GitHub and Cloudflare for mods and community maps. Auto falls back when a source fails or stalls and remembers the last working source.
• The battlefield HUD has clearer economy and power information, health bars and faction markers. Minimap colors make forces easier to distinguish.
• Destroyed vehicles, aircraft and ships leave more detailed wrecks.
• In Conquest, forces exposed after losing their last completed headquarters appear as red silhouettes through fog.
• Refreshed app icons, wordmark and opening screen.
• Press V to cycle through the available game speeds in local matches and replays.

Fixed

• Clicking or tapping moving units could fail to select them.
• Right-clicking the minimap could trigger an attack or another contextual action instead of movement. It now gives a movement destination to selected units or a rally point to selected factories.
• Holding Esc could repeatedly dismiss menus or back out of successive screens.

Improved

• Mountain and City tiles now block ground visibility behind them. The blocking tiles themselves remain visible within normal sight range; aircraft and powered radar can see across them. Forests, cliffs and elevation do not block sight, while uphill shots retain their damage reduction.
• Formations can contain up to twelve units, increased from eight, with the same movement-class and aircraft-speed requirements.
• Deleting an eligible unit near its own completed production building recovers half its cost, scaled by remaining health. Engineers can also recycle near their own completed headquarters. Embarked units, carrier wings and warheads give no refund; self-destructing elsewhere still returns no metal.
• Editor opens a map library for creating, importing and managing maps, with tabs for editing several maps.
• Replays have a clearer library with mode filters, batch export and deletion. Automatic saving requires at least three minutes of recording.
• Revised nuclear and EMP missile flight animations.
• Construction, production, research and warhead cards show unfinished work across the current selection, with clearer warhead launch controls.
• Engineers with a completed HQ Lv.2 can build Arsenals, Strategic Airbases and Deepwater Yards directly. Existing production buildings retain their current level.
• Random maps include small settlements and shallow or frozen shorelines. Cities and forests have more varied artwork.
• Ground cache memory in Graphics settings controls how much ground imagery is retained when revisiting an area, independently of the graphics preset.

New

• HQ Lv.2 upgrades a headquarters for 15,000 metal over 180 powered seconds, requiring a completed Radar Station and a tier-3 production building. While it survives, the team gains full-map ground and air vision, subject to stealth, smoke and sonar rules. Its owner's ordinary units gain 75% weapon damage and 15% movement speed, and the headquarters' own gun deals more damage. Multiple upgraded headquarters do not stack these bonuses.
• New Conquest setups and multiplayer rooms default to a 60-minute time limit, which can be changed or disabled in match settings. At expiry, the surviving faction with the most stored metal wins for its team; allied balances are not pooled, and a highest-balance tie across opposing teams is a draw. The HUD counts down the remaining time. Older saves and replays without a limit remain unlimited.
• Hold fire suppresses automatic firing and pursuit while allowing movement and support orders to continue. Press J or use the command card or controller wheel; Fire at will restores automatic fire. Explicit attack orders and direct firing also release Hold fire.

Fixed

• Units could get stuck against building corners or continue following a route obstructed by new construction.
• Buildings, scenery and their ruins could incorrectly cover units moving beside their footprints.
• Mines could leave incorrect wreckage or explosion effects.
• Visible fires and explosion glows could be cut off at the edge of fog.
• Keeping the same recorded match more than once could create duplicate local replay entries.

New

• Protect can guard an area as well as a friendly unit or building. Press P or choose Protect, then frame a patrol area. Guards defend allies inside it, engage visible intruders, and resume patrolling after nearby threats are dealt with.
• Frame an area with Attack Move armed to clear enemy units and buildings within it. Units choose their own targets and survey the area between fights. Mouse drags, held two-finger frames and controller selection boxes support both area orders; Shift queues the objective.
• Inspect a visible enemy and press F to mark it High priority, or use the inspection card or controller order wheel. Each faction can keep three marks, shown as amber diamonds while visible. Automatic weapons favor marked targets when their orders, range and ammunition allow; a fourth mark replaces the oldest.
• Hold H to peek at your headquarters, then release to return to the previous camera view. Tapping still jumps to a headquarters and cycles through them when you have several.

Improved

• Idle damaged units can visit a nearby allied Repair Tower or stationary Hercules and return to their station. These visits and engineers' automatic building repairs preserve a 200-metal reserve; explicit repair orders retain their usual spending rules.
• Idle Engineers and Engineer Boats help finish nearby foundations already under construction, then return. Automatic upkeep avoids known enemy fire and respects existing orders, formations and Hold position.
• Unlocked Smoke Screen, Countermeasures + ERA, Damage Control and Emergency Repair can trigger automatically on ordinary units when needed. Cooldowns and repair costs still apply, and units under direct control leave ability timing to the player.
• Automatic guns spread their fire when friendly rounds already in flight are likely to finish a target. Explicit focus fire, ongoing bursts, artillery and committed aircraft attacks keep their targets.
• The Sovereign Battleship is built at the Deepwater Yard. Its main guns reach 17 tiles, with a minimum range of 4 tiles and a 20-second reload between salvos.
• Refreshed Chinese crew recordings with shorter phrasing and clearer pronunciation.
• Client-side name and chat screening applies only to official rooms with filtering enabled. LAN and self-hosted rooms use their host's filtering rules; official-room screening recognizes more disguised prohibited content and abusive names.

Fixed

• Surviving land mines, water mines and their blueprints no longer keep an otherwise defeated faction alive or prevent victory in the first campaign mission.
• Touch orders keep builders selected when repairing a friendly building or helping construction, and aircraft can board a compatible carrier with a tap.
• Content checks cannot hold up joining or sending indefinitely, and older WebViews can start even when they cannot load the local filtering rules.

New

• Steel truss bridges let vehicles cross above ships, with amphibious units able to swim underneath. Paint Bridge in the Scenario Editor.
• Unit crews answer selections and orders with distinct ground, air and naval voices in English and Chinese.
• Protect assigns units to guard a friendly unit or building, following it and prioritizing enemies attacking it.
• Director Mode in the spectator panel automatically follows battles and tours armies and bases between fights. Move or zoom the camera to take over; watching through a faction keeps that faction's fog of war.
• Sichuan Basin, a Conquest map for up to eight factions, with the Chengdu plain, mountain passes, river crossings and roads linking the basin's cities.
• My Scenarios keeps up to six maps in a local library, available from My in match setup.
• Numpad 1–9 chooses from the selected engineer's construction list or a production building's unit list. Hold Shift to queue five units; without a construction or production list, the keypad still recalls army groups.
• The game's larger-screen menus and the website can show the number of players active in the past 15 minutes.

Improved

• Forests, mountains and city blocks block direct fire between surface units. Units move around intervening cover to find a shot; artillery and airborne attacks can fire over it. Ruined city blocks continue to provide cover.
• Isolated idle units retreat from attacks they cannot answer. Player orders, nearby friendly units and Hold position keep them from retreating automatically.
• Naval AI gathers fleets on connected water, responds to harbor threats, and pursues enemy ships before reachable coastal targets. Island economies reserve more metal for fleets and production upgrades.
• Listed public multiplayer rooms require two seated human players before starting. Self-hosted rooms retain solo play.
• Airbases cost 380 metal and Naval Yards cost 350.
• The Spectre Gunship has 1100 hit points and deals 28 damage per shot. Its cannon retains its effectiveness against light and medium armor, with reduced damage against heavy armor, structures and ships.
• The Drake Flame Tank moves more slowly. Scorpion missiles deal 400 damage each, increased from 260, with a larger blast radius.
• The second campaign mission starts with two Extractors and gives more time before the first air raid and between later raids.
• New destruction effects and sounds for buildings and scenery.
• The Scenario Editor gives the map more space, with a revised layout and a minimap on larger screens.
• Community scenario submissions include a preview and require a contact email and 200 merit, refunded if the request fails.
• Mods can include up to 192 sprite sheets, increased from 160.
• Multiplayer checks names and chat before sending when the room's content filtering is enabled. Rejected chat stays available to edit, and server filtering catches more disguised links and blocked terms.
• Command tooltips explain each action. Order markers distinguish attacks, protection, repairs, construction and boarding; building placement previews mark obstructed cells individually.
• The quick-selection dial opens at the pointer or controller reticle and stays within the screen's edges.
• The minimap uses blue for friendly forces and red for enemies. Spectator views and the expanded battle map retain faction colors.
• Clearer layouts for Multiplayer, Settings and the Arsenal.

Fixed

• Rain and other weather sounds could linger after leaving a match or the editor.
• Android could show a white strip along the edge of the game. Startup and loading also work on more older WebViews, and Android LAN hosting handles compressed connections correctly.
• Switching mobile tabs could misplace the selection underline; the editor's palette could prevent the camera from bringing map edges into view.
• Units finish an ongoing burst before changing targets or taking a queued move, and losing a target no longer sends the remaining rockets into friendly units.
• Mod construction handoffs could leave an invisible blocked building footprint behind.
• Unit sounds could continue after a unit was destroyed or removed.

New

• Find match in Multiplayer joins a casual 1v1 queue on official servers. Keep browsing the menus while you wait; once both players accept, the game chooses the server, map and rules.
• Land Mines, laid by Engineers or Engineer Boats: concealed charges that arm after construction and explode when an enemy ground vehicle approaches. The blast is strongest against light vehicles and spares allies.
• Water Mines, laid by Engineer Boats in shallow or deep water: concealed charges triggered by enemy ships, submerged submarines and swimming amphibians. Friendly hulls pass safely.
• Import Rusted Warfare .tmx maps in the Scenario Editor. Terrain, resources and supported starting forces are converted, with notes to review before playing; custom artwork and mission scripts are omitted.
• Start Conquest without assigning yourself a faction to watch an AI battle with the whole map in view.
• Save four camera positions and zoom levels with Ctrl/Cmd + F5–F8, then recall them with F5–F8. Quick save moves to Shift + F5; quick load remains F9.
• A Max graphics preset keeps all effects at 2× render sharpness. High uses the same effects at 1.5×.

Improved

• Touch controls put selection on a side rail and orders in a tray near the bottom. Shortcuts select engineers and production buildings, with more choices on a long press; army groups show their members. Direct control has two sticks: steer with the left, aim and fire with the right.
• Menus, map previews and the battlefield interface share clearer text and colors, with revised phone layouts and transitions into a match.
• Airbases, naval yards, submarines and large aircraft have updated artwork and animations.
• Each completed Headquarters produces a base income of 0.5 metal per second. In Conquest, losing your last completed HQ leaves position markers for your surviving forces visible to enemies until you finish rebuilding one.
• Anti-air missiles have limited flight distance, turning speed and seeker coverage, so aircraft can evade them. Falcon missiles deal 100 damage and SAM missiles 170.
• The Drake Flame Tank and AA Turret each cost 400 metal; upgrading an AA Turret to a SAM Site costs 600. The Hornet limit rises to ten.
• The Gatling Turret upgrade costs 200 metal and its range reaches 6.5 tiles. The Bastion Cannon upgrade costs 340 metal, and the completed emplacement has 1500 hit points.
• The Scenario Editor adds filled rectangle and circle tools, with improved touch controls for panning and zooming.
• New profiles start with a graphics preset suited to the device. Existing quality choices are kept, and settings stay steady during a match.
• Destroyed ships have new sinking animations.

Fixed

• Community map submissions could fail before reaching review.
• Low terrain detail could lose shoreline shading and foam, and zoomed-out views could repeatedly rebuild visible terrain, causing hitches.

New

• From October 2, iOS and Android collect gameplay statistics to help improve the game and measure returning players. Settings → About → Link statistics to this device controls whether visits share a persistent random ID; turning it off keeps counts separate between launches. Names and chat are not included. See the privacy policy.
• The Aircraft Carrier, built at the Deepwater Yard: a mobile flight deck for aircraft and helicopters. Aircraft land aboard to rearm, then launch to resume their orders; manually embarked reserves stay aboard until you unload them.
• Warhead targeting has an optical sight and a thermal view, with coordinates, bearing and range. Tab switches sensors while aiming.
• Production slots per HQ can be set from 1 to 10 in Game config, in single-player setup and multiplayer lobbies. The default remains three.
• Normandy and Burma Road bundles bring new vehicle, aircraft and building skins to the Store, alongside the extractor's animated Nodding Donkey pumpjack.
• Latest update opens the release notes inside the game, from the home screen or the menu on small screens.
• The Scenario Editor submits maps for community review without a GitHub account. Your commander name is used for author credit; approved maps appear in Community maps.
• Share your service record from the Profile: a poster with your commander name, army and career highlights, ready to save as a PNG or share where your device supports it.

Improved

• Armed aircraft carry finite ammunition and return to an airbase or available carrier when empty. After rearming, they resume their orders.
• Helicopters fly low enough for machine guns, light autocannons and the Bison's and Mammoth's roof guns to hit them. The Cobra moves to the Advanced Airbase, the Flak Track can engage ground targets, and SAM Sites and Falcon missiles hit aircraft harder.
• Breakthrough gives attackers their budget immediately, with ready production lines, while each defender checkpoint starts with a working base. Capturing a checkpoint adds four minutes and moves production forward with upgrades, queues and work intact. Attackers and defenders have separate first-match guides.
• The home screen and setup screens are redesigned. Map previews show starting units and buildings with the battle map's symbols, and lobbies make starting positions easier to see.
• Campaign armies wear their own camouflage and equipment, with desert depots and pumpjacks in Qarash bases. Your chosen looks still apply to your own units.
• The Profile showcases your headquarters and top units with their equipped looks, alongside clearer merit and career statistics.
• Space starts Conquest and Breakthrough matches and starts a match as the multiplayer host.

Fixed

• A multiplayer match could fail to open when applying your units' looks.
• Loading a finished match or reconnecting could award merit again. Rewards now require combat contribution and are limited per match. Custom maps and modded matches do not award merit.
• Aircraft could circle too close to a target to complete an attack pass.
• Mobile menus could overlap the bottom system inset.

Improved

• Missions 2 to 9 are rebuilt with what the game gained since they were made: real towns, mudflats, fields at sea, sandbags, the Scorpion, the Gator, the Hercules and the abilities.
• Redesigned campaign screen with mission briefings and a card-based mission selector.
• Ships make their best speed in deep water and less in the shallows, and a route takes the deep passage. A submarine cannot dive in shallow water.
• The Orca Destroyer's gun reaches 7 tiles, past the headquarters' gun.
• Q is two keys in one: a tap lays a mark where the cursor is, and a hold brings up the dial in the middle of the field, in four branches.
• A save says which mods it needs, and which of them you do not have.

New

• Fields at sea, and the offshore rig that mines them: the extractor's equal on legs, laid by an engineer boat on open water or by an engineer over a frozen sea. The Santa Barbara Channel, Pacific Storm and Wake Island carry most of their ore at sea.
• The Santa Barbara Channel: the Southern California Bight, six seats, in place of Saltbone Reach.
• Formation, on the command card or Z: up to eight units of one kind keep their places on the move, the shape turned to the way it goes, at the slowest one's pace. A move order of its own takes a unit out.
• The Profile, at the top of the home screen: your Career with its medals and records.
• A Field manual in the Arsenal, beside each line's looks: every unit and building the next match plays with, mods included, with its figures and your own record of it.
• Every match keeps a record for each unit: how many were built and lost, what each of them destroyed, and the metal your mines dug.
• Mods can add unit abilities such as shields, regeneration, spawning units, lasers and carrier aircraft.

Fixed

• Missions opened short of power, so columns crawled and guns reloaded slowly.
• Some missions put the enemy's guns on ground nothing but a radar or the air can see up, and a column lost tanks without ever seeing what hit it.
• A mission is played with the tech tree off, which shut every ability but the Buggy's sprint.

Improved

• A fleet answers the sky: naval guns are dual purpose, the Sovereign Battleship carries an anti-air battery, the Gunboat's autocannon reaches up, and an anti-tank missile only holes a hull.
• A ship's air defence keeps a target of its own, so the Aegis's cells and the battleship's secondaries fire on aircraft while the main guns are busy elsewhere.
• A ship closes to the reach of the weapon that answers what it is shooting at, and a torpedo is never launched into land.
• Every opponent but the Veteran plays under the same fog of war you do, and scouts by drone and scout car to find you.
• The computer aims a warhead at ground rather than at a building, and keeps its own units out of the blast.
• Victory and defeat have music of their own.
• Shadows and wet-ground reflections, available in Settings ▸ Graphics.
• A mouse and keyboard get a strip along the foot of the screen saying what the buttons and the keys do right now.
• Wake Island is redrawn from a photograph of the atoll.

New

• The first mission teaches the game, a step at a time under the objectives.
• The Wraith Stealth Bomber carries a nuclear bomb: dropped over its point, it lies there for ten seconds before it goes off, and anything that shoots the ground can destroy it first.
• The Kraken Cruise-Missile Submarine is the second launcher, in place of the Barracuda. It arms its warhead on the surface beside one of your own naval yards, and fires from anywhere.
• Any submarine surfaces on T: faster and longer-sighted while it is up, and in plain sight. The Moray comes up by itself to load and unload.

Fixed

• The computer walled its own army in with its own buildings.
• A cargo plane on the ground turned the aircraft above it aside.