Once Human's Next Big Patch Adjusts Seasonal Phase Durations and Adds New Endgame Content

Once Human players whose endgame experiences felt rushed and lacking apparently weren’t alone, and Starry Studio seems to have gotten the message. With the March 27 patch, Once Human will adjust each scenario’s lengths to allow for more mid- to endgame access, plus adding some higher-tier endgame content. 

How it generally works is that during each “season” of a Scenario, the game unlocks certain areas of the map and, along with them, new end-game mechanics and content to tackle throughout different timed “phases.” It seems that Starry Studio has received enough feedback about the length of each phase, and how it affects players’ ability to handle them, that they’re going forward with some adjustments. 

“We have received feedback regarding weak mid-game pacing, prolonged character growth downtime, and suboptimal timing for unlocking advanced game mechanics in scenarios like Manibus and The Way of Winter,” the team explains.

“In the March 27 update, we plan to adjust the scenario phase durations and unlocked content for Manibus (Novice), Manibus, The Way of Winter, and Evolution's Call.” 

On top of these changes, there’ll be new high-difficulty levels for certain parts of the Manibus’s non-novice scenario, Nightmare for Securement Silos and Apocalypse for The Prime War. Securement Silos’ Nightmare mode will be available during Manibus phase three, while the Prime War’s Apocalypse can be accessed via any Nightmare-difficulty zone upon the arrival of Manibus phase four. 

As for the date changes, the exact numbers are quite extensive, given the length of each scenario, so here’s the general gist of it: 

• In Manibus’s novice mode, four days are shifted from the first three phases into the last three phases to “enable players to explore the entire map and tackle higher-difficulty dungeons earlier in the Manibus (Novice) scenario” and tackle concerns about inadequate time for mid- to late-game dungeons. 
• In The Way of Winter, five days have been moved from the first two phases and into phase four, addressing mid-game growth, Pro dungeons taking too long to unlock, and similar mid- to late-game dungeon concerns as Manibus. 
• For Evolution’s Call, there’ll be no changes to lengths, but access to Hard and Pro dungeons will be made available one phase earlier, in phase two and three respectively. 
• The non-novice Manibus’s third phase, Raft of the Rift, will be removed entirely, while phases one and two will be shortened to four and six days respectively. Meanwhile, to get endgame players going more quickly, Hard dungeons, High-Risk Public Crisis Events, and The Prime War’s Hard mode have been pushed back to phase two, with Pro Dungeons starting in phase three. 

If you’re already running a Manibus (non-novice) scenario, there’ll be separate changes applied that allow you to access the new content, but keep some of the old Scenario cadence going, so it’s worth checking the full blog to see when you can access new content. 

And if you’re not keen on that one, they say there are more “gameplay expansions” coming for other Scenarios in the works. In general, it seems like even in the midst of the days before mobile launches, Starry Sky seems dedicated to adding and adjusting the experience for its long-term players, including adding permanent servers for players who don’t want to join the seasonal wipes and new “Harvesters Markets” to put up player-to-player vending machines.