Hi!
We’ve been working on this update for around 24 days. A significant part of that time went into things that aren’t always easy to show in a single screenshot: full controller support, navigation across dozens of different menus, third-person combat, AI, stability, loading, and hundreds of small interactions.
At the same time, we’ve added a lot of new things: graphics presets, trophies, new water interaction, sliding, new combat animations, progressive enemy wounds, interactive places to rest, more life in the forest, and much more.
As always, Forest Doesn’t Care is being made by just two people, so we’re moving forward step by step. Some of the systems introduced in this update will continue to be improved based on your feedback.
Let’s get into it.
🎮 Major Controller Support Update
This is one of the biggest parts of the update.
We didn’t want the game to simply “respond to a controller.” We wanted Forest Doesn’t Care to actually feel comfortable to play without a keyboard and mouse.
Added full controller navigation in the inventory.
Added controller support for crafting, repairs, and bartering.
Added controller navigation for the journal, notes, settings, and trophies.
Added support for the radial Quick Slots menu.
Added controller support for the weapon modification menu.
Added full map controls: navigation, zooming, and drawing.
Reworked controls for the lockpicking minigame.
Improved campfire menu controls.
Added tab switching with LT/RT.
Improved navigation back using B/Circle.
Added automatic UI focus handling.
Fixed windows that previously couldn’t be closed without a keyboard or mouse.
Added proper button prompts for interactions, deconstruction, lockpicking, sleeping, and other actions.
Prompts now automatically switch between keyboard/mouse and controller inputs.
Improved support for custom key bindings.
Fixed incorrect, outdated, and duplicated button icons.
Inventory context actions now update correctly depending on the selected item.
Improved navigation and scrolling in the Trophy menu.
The character can now be rotated with the right stick in the lobby.
Fixed accumulated input that could sometimes cause the character to continue rotating on their own.
Fixed duplicated prompts after reopening menus.
Improved the appearance of the item context menu.
Added time slowdown when using Quick Slots with a controller.
Added dozens of smaller fixes related to focus, navigation, and switching between input devices.
This turned out to be much more work than we originally expected. But the foundation for properly playing the game with a controller is finally here.
⚔️ Combat System Update
We’ve put a lot of work into improving how melee combat looks and feels in third person.
Completely replaced attack animations.
Added new combat stances.
Improved Tribe attack animations.
Improved character hand positioning in various situations.
Enemies can now knock the player down.
Heavy attacks from large Tribes and boars can now cause a short stun effect and knock you down — so don’t forget to block, even then.
Third-person combat should now look significantly more polished and natural.
🩸 Progressive Enemy Wounds
Attacks now leave visible marks.
After melee hits, wounds gradually accumulate on enemy bodies.
Attacks leave blood and visible cuts.
The number of visible wounds increases as the enemy takes more hits.
Each enemy has their own individual wound state.
Wound states are synchronized in multiplayer.
Combat now leaves a physical history of what happened to your opponent.
🩸 New Damage Effect
We also reworked the blood effect on the player’s screen.
Instead of instantly showing the same vignette every time, the effect now gradually becomes more intense.
The first hit barely obscures the screen.
The second adds light blood streaks.
The third makes the effect noticeably stronger.
The fourth hit and beyond make it very clear that you’re in serious trouble.
Heavy damage can immediately trigger a more intense effect.
Blood smoothly fades in and out.
Repeated hits intensify the existing effect instead of restarting it.
The effect is triggered by bullets and melee attacks, but not by hunger or fall damage.
We like how it feels during combat so far, but we’ll be watching your feedback.
🌊 Dynamic Water Interaction
Water now reacts much more naturally to the player.
Water physically reacts to movement.
Natural waves form around the character’s body.
Added contact displacement.
Movement now leaves a more visible trail in the water.
Floating leaves move around the character instead of clipping through the model.
Improved the waterline and the visual contact between the body and water surface.
Added a longer cinematic wake behind the character.
Optimized the water material.
Water now also has separate quality modes for Low, Medium, High, and Epic settings.
High and Epic retain the highest water quality, while lower settings use simplified shader branches for better performance.
🎨 5 New Graphics Presets
We added five ready-to-use graphics profiles — from POTATO all the way to REAL LIFE.
You no longer need to manually go through dozens of settings just to figure out what works best for your PC.
With one click, you can choose between:
maximum performance;
a balance between FPS and visuals;
high visual quality;
maximum graphics quality.
We’ve also added approximate GPU recommendations next to the presets to give you a better idea of where to start.
Every individual setting can still be adjusted manually.
We tried to find a reasonable balance for each profile, but this system will continue to be adjusted. If a preset behaves strangely on your hardware, leave your PC specs and results in the comments.
Also, Motion Blur is now disabled by default. We noticed that a lot of players were turning it off immediately after launching the game anyway.
🏆 Trophy System
A new Trophies section has been added to the character menu.
Trophies are unlocked through different activities during your playthrough:
fishing;
gathering resources;
hunting;
defeating specific enemies;
and other challenges.
Progress for cumulative challenges is saved between game sessions.
The menu allows you to view unlocked trophies, their names, descriptions, and icons.
This is the first version of the system. It isn’t finished yet — we’ll gradually expand it with new challenges and rewards.
🧠 AI Improvements
We’re continuing to gradually rebuild AI behavior.
Fixed animal visibility checks for ranged AI.
Fixed focus updates when changing or losing targets.
Players and other dangerous targets now have higher priority than peaceful animals.
Tribes can stop hunting an animal if they notice a more serious threat.
After taking damage, AI now switches its attention to the attacker more reliably.
Added a priority system between different AI types.
Enemies should no longer mindlessly attack everything around them.
Enemies can now knock the player down.
We also fixed enemy hit reactions and an issue where AI could become stuck after spawning.
Enabled hit reactions for several enemy types.
Interrupted hit-reaction montages now finish correctly.
Initial AI setup should no longer return an enemy to an idle state in the middle of combat.
🪑 You Can Just Sit Down Now
Interactive sitting spots have been added throughout the world.
Sometimes the forest really doesn’t care. At least now you can sit down for a while.
Sit down and rest at certain locations.
Eat while sitting.
Drink while sitting.
Fish while sitting.
Interact with nearby available objects.
Switch between first and third person while sitting.
Press a movement or jump button to stand up.
Improved sitting and standing animations.
Improved camera behavior.
Fixed a multiplayer bug where sitting on a wooden chair could sometimes literally launch a client player into the sky.
Hopefully, chairs have finally stopped being one of the most dangerous enemies in the game.
🏃 Sliding & Landing Roll
Added Slide.
While sprinting, press CTRL to slide.
We also added a landing roll when falling from a height that causes damage.
🌲 The Forest Feels a Little More Alive
We’re continuing to work on making the forest feel like something that actually exists around the player rather than simply being a beautiful backdrop.
Added flies.
Added butterflies.
Added birds.
Birds can appear alone or in pairs.
Significantly expanded the variety of sounds when moving through grass and bushes.
Improved several existing locations.
Added more small environmental details.
These are small things individually, but together they make the world feel much more alive.
🗺️ Map & Minimap
Player-drawn markers now appear on the minimap.
The minimap now takes the character’s position and facing direction into account.
Added a current player position marker to the large map.
Added 2× zoom for more precise drawing.
Improved the display of the active tool and brush size.
When switching tools, the tool name briefly appears near the cursor.
The drawn map now loads onto the minimap immediately after entering the game.
Optimized map update frequency.
Fixed a potential critical crash when exiting the game after using the map.
🔫 Weapon Updates
We updated several weapon and attachment models.
New AK-74M model.
New AK-47 model.
Significantly improved AKS-74U model.
Updated collimator sight.
New higher-quality side-mount rail for AK-platform weapons.
🌿 Bodies Now Clear Tall Grass
Enemy and animal bodies now automatically clear tall grass and small vegetation underneath them.
This should make bodies and loot significantly easier to find in dense vegetation.
The clearing area moves together with the ragdoll.
Once the ragdoll stops moving, the clearing area becomes fixed.
Vegetation returns after the body disappears.
🎒 Loot & Items
Improved and rebalanced Tribe loot drops.
We reduced the number of situations where defeating an enemy could leave the player with absolutely no loot.
Also:
Increased the time before arrows disappear.
Fixed an item duplication exploit involving materials required to create the Respawn Totem.
Weapons attached to the character are now displayed correctly when using the small backpack.
Fixed items not returning to the player’s hands correctly after eating or drinking.
Cooper at the camp now trades Scrap for King Bolete.
🛠️ Gameplay & Quality of Life
Simplified the crafting system.
Removed unnecessary categories.
Added confirmation when changing settings.
Added new skill icons.
Added pause functionality in single-player.
Fixed missing feedback when the player couldn’t read a newly discovered note or letter because their inventory was full.
Added additional protection against physics bugs that could launch the character into the sky, underground, or somewhere else they definitely weren’t planning to go.
Moved the crashed plane to a new location. This should make the story progression route more logical.
Added natural drop-offs in several areas near slopes and rivers.
Environmental sounds are now synchronized in multiplayer — players should hear the same events at the same time.
Fixed fishing sounds in multiplayer.
🎥 First & Third Person
Improved the use of food, water, and bandages while playing in third person.
During these interactions, the camera temporarily switches to the appropriate first-person animation and then returns to the previous camera mode afterward.
ːsteamsaltyː Additional fixes completed while this post was being prepared:
Fixed incorrect hand positioning while driving the buggy for both clients and the server.
Improved vehicle collision/ramming logic. Most enemies and animals can now be run over with the buggy, while large and heavy enemies cannot.
Fixed an issue where a passenger exiting the buggy could be teleported back to the location where they had previously entered the vehicle.
Fixed an issue where items could fall through the wooden boards in shops.
Fixed crosshair scaling when aiming in third-person view.
Fixed collision on tall grass that interfered with proper building placement.
Fixed an inventory/container issue where identical items would sometimes fail to stack properly when moving them between inventories.
Fixed an issue where the character could start rotating automatically after returning to the Main Menu.
Fixed an issue where the character could remain crouched after performing a slide.
Fixed incorrect finger positioning while holding placeable/buildable objects.
Added attack speed progression to melee skills. Skills that increase melee weapon damage now also increase melee attack speed.
Fixed excessively loud breathing sounds from other players in multiplayer.
Fixed an exploit where players could repeatedly shoot bottles near the Hunter Pass shop to farm XP. XP gained from hitting bottles has been significantly reduced.
Added the correct physical material to aliens.
Added a grid and coordinate markings to the map, making it easier to communicate locations and identify which grid square you or other players are in.
