We seriously consider all the feedback we receive when planning our updates. Much of the feedback we have gotten since launch was about the game being too hard and sometimes even frustrating for new players. At the same time we also see that there are a number of players that have become incredibly good at the game, to the point where they have beaten all Challenge Levels and Achievements, and have Tribes with hundreds of Members and thousands of resources.
So we decided that with today’s Explorer Update we should make the game both easier and harder! To achieve these mildly paradoxical goals we have introduced a new game mode, while also adding 3 new Challenge Levels and 15 new Achievements.
Explorer Mode
A new “Explorer Mode” has now been added as a choice when you start a new run. Explorer Mode offers a more relaxed way of playing The Tribe Must Survive, which is ideal for new and experienced players alike, to get more familiar with the game. There are no Disasters, Inner Conflicts, Act Perks, or Challenge Level modifiers, offering the opportunity to learn and experiment with the game’s core mechanics at one’s own pace. There is still a plethora of decisions for Tribe Leaders to make through in-game Events and through the ways you grow your Tribe. While this new mode offers a more forgiving gameplay experience, there are still elements that can go wrong, leaving the Tribe starving for Wood or Food for long periods of time. The Tribe Population on Explorer Mode is capped at 300 Tribe members. Achievements cannot be unlocked in Explorer Mode, but there is permanent XP gain at a reduced rate, to help you work towards unlocking the next perk.
Whenever you feel up for it, you can return to the compelling survival experience we know and love, by selecting “Survival Mode” when starting a new adventure. This game mode is how The Tribe Must Survive is intended to be played. Prepare to still die a lot as you find a way to overcome all five Disasters. The Challenge Levels and Achievements are unlockable in this game mode only.
15 New Achievements
Show off your mastery of strategic choices by attempting to unlock some of the 15 new Achievements added to the game. These Achievements do require a thorough understanding of the game and can sometimes hint at contradictory strategies. Can you survive the Locust Disaster without building any Hunter's Halls? How can one unlock all Building Upgrades in a single run? When there’s a will, there’s a way and nothing can stop a pioneering Tribe from surviving.
All the above, plus the usual list of tweaks and bug fixes are now available with the new update. Take a look at the full list of changes below:
Patch Notes
New Content
- Added Explorer Mode, alongside the default experience, now called “Survival Mode”.
- 15 new Achievements - Some are very hard, some even harder!
- 3 new Challenge Levels:
- Level 8: Maximum Number of Trees per Tile -2 (5 —> 3)
- Level 9: Tolerance and Stability is capped at +1
- Level 10: Chance that new Tribe Members have the Weird Gleam: 25%
- Level 8: Maximum Number of Trees per Tile -2 (5 —> 3)
- 3 additional XP-Levels that unlock 3 new Personalty Perks (22 in total now)
- Level 20: Primal Instinct: When Fear is above 35, gain -20% Movement Time (from -3 Extraversion to +3 Neuroticism)
- Level 21: Devoted Spiritualist: Medicine Farm Productivity +20% (from +3 Openness to +3 Conscientiousness)
- Level 22: Mediator: Increases Cohesion Threshold by 2 (from +3 Openness to +3 Agreeableness)
- Level 20: Primal Instinct: When Fear is above 35, gain -20% Movement Time (from -3 Extraversion to +3 Neuroticism)
- 3 New Events
Quality of Life Additions
- By popular demand, we added a 4th Game-Speed for those who like to play fast. The new speed is 8x; twice as fast as Speed 3.
- Information about Perks that decay over time is now correctly displayed in Events
- Clarification about Perks that end at the end of a Disaster has been added to the related tooltip
- Use of infinity UI-icon when population is uncapped
- UI now shows number of relics left in excavation building
Balancing Changes
- Reduced Fertile Maenad Tribe Growth from 10-->5
- Reduced the Stone Cost of Pleasure Dens to 0, and slightly increased its Wood Cost
- Reduced Excavation Stone Cost 50—>20
- Reduced number of hives in the final locust wave 10—>9
- Reduced tent sleeping time from fermented fruit 20%—>5%
- Reduced Tribe Growth from Wild Reproduction 10—>8
- Many small timing/condition and balancing improvements to Events
- Buffed “Slaves To The Yellow King” (final Yellow Spiritual Aspect). Food Need Time Interval is now reduced by 50% (from 70%) and Movement Time is now increased by 10% (from 25%). This will make this Aspect much stronger, as it will require much less food need satisfaction, significantly reducing the required food and time spent eating.
General Improvements & Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where the Journey inventory was not cleared, if the Journey had not started. This change prevents the inventory exploit, during the Locust disaster..
- Fixed a bug where you could lose Challenge Level progress
- Fixed tooltip flickering
- Fixed a UI glitch in the Outpost Caravan setup screen
- Fixed an issue that occurred when Tribe Members died in an Outpost and got “Twice Born” in the Main Camp
- Fixed an issue where the fire would be off an hour too early after loading a save game where wood was low.
- Fixed icon size in the UI of selected buildings
- Fixed a bug where empty Excavations would still show Relic production progress
- Fixed some formatting bugs in the trading menus
- Fixed a bug where mouse wheel scrolling would not open strategy view and added a hotkey for it [V]
- Improved weather particle system performance —> Flood and Locust disaster are now a bit less taxing, performance-wise
- Improved Tribe Member Collider performance —> Large numbers of Tribe Members will be a bit less taxing, performance-wise. Especially when many of them are in the same place.
As always, we hope this new release deepens the experience and gives you more ways to discover and master the mechanics of the Tribe. Once you have tried it out, you are more than welcome to hop onto our Discord server for support and casual chat about the update, the game and beyond. Leading Tribes does not need to be an individual sport in this Lovecraftian Stone Age!
And remember; even if the Tribe does not Survive, it can at least Explore!
- The Tribe Must Survive Team
