What is the half-life of comedy? WRONG. Comedy is a vibe, not a substance, you buffoon. I know this because I am a man of science. I have played survival crafting game Abiotic Factor for an unspecified number of hours, and have learned many things. Most recently, I learned that the developers are releasing it from early access peer review today, but the shiny version 1.0 comes with a few notes scribbled hastily in the margins. If you already have a save file and don’t want to lose any pet mutants you’ve trained, you might want to read on.
“Before you update your save to the new 1.0 version, please take your Pests out of their Pest Traps and Pest Wheels!” developers Deep Field Games warn in a guide to upgrading your save. “Pests in cages or wheels will be lost so be sure to set them out to roam before updating!”
Pests, for those uninitiated, are slimy cross-dimensional maggot things that normally attack you, but can be subdued and turned into pets, which is an anagram of “pest”. Is rearranging letters an indivisible element of comedy? We do not yet know. Further research is required.
Anyway, the warning above is just one small note in a handy guide that details how much the update is likely to affect players’ existing worlds. Mostly, your base, character and story progress will be fine. But pets seem to have proven tricky to cross over. Soups too.
“Due to some changes in how we store soup data (now stored in a better, cleaner way) existing pots full of soup that have been placed in the world will all be turned into Pest Goulash,” say the devs. Yes, you do also chop up and eat the pests.
Obviously, if you’re coming into Abiotic Factor as a new player none of this will be a problem. Likewise if you intend to restart from the beginning, something which the developers gently suggest is a good option.
“Starting a new world save when 1.0 lands will give you a more ‘intended’ playthrough with more tools at your disposal,” says design director Geoff “Zag” Keene, “but if you don’t want to do that, that’s fine too. I’m not going to make you do anything. I’m not your dad.”
Thanks dad – I mean Zag. Whichever way you come at this, you’re in for a good time if you slurp often upon survival games. Abiotic Factor was one of our favourite games of last year just on the strength of its Half-Life adjacent sense of humour. As for the future of the blood-spattered labratory explorer, the devs are “already working on ABF’s next update plans” and promise that it’ll continue to see “bug fixes, quality of life improvements and general support”.
Version 1.0 is due to come out today at 6pm BST, aka 1pm EDT. Please don’t ask me to type out any more time zones. I’m not World Time Buddy. Here’s a map with all the release times from the developer.
