What the new major update of Once Human has brought with it

What the New Major Once Human Update Brought

Recently, the looter-shooter survival game Once Human received another major update, version 2.3.1, weighing a hefty 12 GB. It brought a completely new seasonal activity and various mechanics, new weapons, armor, Deviants, enemy types, a full or partial rework of several core systems, as well as all sorts of improvements and changes.

Aberrant Progeny

The third season of the Visional Wheel system is called Aberrant Progeny and brought the following new things to all eligible servers.

Deviant Zone

All ordinary contaminated zones have been transformed into special contaminated Deviant zones, which come in two types - red and purple. Their key features are as follows:

• Purple zones are displayed on the map by default, they change daily, and there can be up to 6 of them in total. Red zones only appear on the map after you visit them, and these are the old contaminated zones.
• Inside the zones, a huge head of some mysterious creature floats in the sky, with arms growing out of it.
• Each zone is tied to a specific difficulty level. Red zones can be Normal, Hard, and Pro, while purple zones are only Hard and Pro.
• The zones are separated from the rest of the world by a standard barrier, which essentially serves as a visual marker of their boundaries.
• Each purple zone is inhabited by a boss with quite a lot of HP and a long respawn cooldown.
• The player's base inside the zones is subjected to a special effect, causing all structures to start taking damage after a certain period of time. When you place a base for the first time, a 7-day protection mode is automatically applied to it. After that, you will have to spend top-tier stardust ore to add a certain number of hours (maximum 24) to the timer. The amount of ore required depends on the base rating, which is influenced by all structures; the higher the rating, the more ore is needed.
• In all purple zones, Deviant enemies can attack your base and, accordingly, damage structures.
• Zones still reduce the character's Sanity stat, and to avoid being left with 1 HP, you will need to increase the Resistance stat to a certain value using equipment and slightly modified food. In Normal difficulty zones, it should be 25 or higher; Hard - 90 or higher; Pro - 180 or higher.
• Each zone is tied to one key red modifier and from 1 to 3 yellow additional modifiers (the higher the zone difficulty, the more there are). Some of them provide various positive effects. By the way, it is because of them that special invulnerable enemies no longer appear in the zones; they have been given a different purpose. There are only three key modifiers, and they are indicated in the names of the zones themselves. Below is a brief description of their effects.
• Wild - increases the chance of plant mutation, simplifies the process of catching/breeding animals. Also, the aforementioned invulnerable enemies can appear here, who now attack not the player, but their planted crops.
• Mirror - blocks the teleportation function, forces you to attack enemies from behind, gives an additional reward when collecting items/mining ore or wood, gives an additional reward for a quick kill from behind. Also, here you can summon a doppelganger of your character, which will distract attention, and find a special invisible running chest with a seasonal reward. +1 image
• Virtual - contains more dangerous enemies, changes the character's state between the normal and illusory world every X seconds, makes enemies normal or illusory. Normal enemies take much less elemental damage than physical damage, while illusory enemies take the opposite. Also, captured animals possess special additional properties.

Special Enemies

Regardless of the type, in each Deviant zone you can encounter two special enemies.

The first - these are people who have a Deviant head instead of a human head, thanks to which they can use various Deviant abilities. After killing such enemies, a corresponding Deviant head drops from them, acting as a new special consumable item. When activated, the character puts this head on themselves, thereby activating a certain effect, which will gradually consume the item's durability. There are a total of 10 such items available, each with its own unique effect; unfortunately, in my opinion, most of them are completely useless. Of all the options, only two are somewhat decent: one makes the character invisible (when you fire a shot, you become visible and then return to invisibility after a certain period of time), and the second allows for high jumps and slightly faster running.

The second - is an invulnerable creature, somewhat resembling a fairly large transparent slug. It reacts exclusively to sound created by characters, after which it quickly heads in their direction. Upon reaching the target, it envelops the character and begins to gradually deal damage; fortunately, it's not fatal, as you can simply run out of it. After that, you won't get any debuff, but I never figured out what it does.

Special Currency

Inside the zones, from special enemies, special invisible chests, seasonal chests, and other sources, you can obtain items called Deviant Origin Seed (hereinafter simply referred to as seeds), which essentially serve as a special seasonal currency. According to the already standard scheme, seeds are temporary (automatically disappear from the inventory 2 days after obtaining) and are tied to two important things, which we will analyze below.

Notoriety

As soon as the character's inventory has a total of 500 seeds, a Notoriety gauge appears in the upper left part of the interface in any of the zones, which will gradually fill up. Once it is filled, you immediately automatically receive one Notoriety star; there can be up to 3 in total. After receiving a star, several portals appear near the character, from which a small group of the aforementioned special enemies emerges. Based on my experience, they pose no threat at all and only allow you to obtain additional seeds and heads.

Deviant Feast

This is the main seasonal activity, implemented as a temporary event that lasts 15 minutes, after which it goes on a 45-minute cooldown. It is structured as follows:

• The duration timer and cooldown are displayed in the inventory interface.
• Takes place inside a random purple Deviant zone.
• You can teleport to the event. Unfortunately, the character is not dropped into the zone itself, but near it, which sometimes means you have to run quite a long way to the border.