Once Human is trading dry land for open water. Isles of Abyss is a standalone maritime survival scenario with its own map, its own progression and a ship you build from a wooden raft into a mobile base, and it arrives as a free update on every current platform at the same time.
Quick answer: Isles of Abyss launches October 22, 2026 as a free update on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass, PC and mobile, with cross-play. Reserve it in-game before launch to collect the milestone rewards.
What Isles of Abyss is
It is not a patch of new coastline stapled onto the existing world. Isles of Abyss is a separate scenario with a complete ocean map split into five regions, built around a scattered cluster of islands and the water between them. You gather and build on land, then sail out through dynamic weather and a day-night cycle that makes the sea genuinely dangerous after dark. Starry Studio and NetEase have called it the game’s largest free content update so far.
- Ship building from a simple raft up to an upgradeable mobile sea fortress.
- Dual survival across islands and open water, with weather and night cycles changing the risk.
- A deep-sea layer with shipwrecks, sealed underwater laboratories and treasure maps.
- Endgame boss encounters, including mechanical behemoths and sea monsters that can sink you.
- A narrative frame of six survival rules, one per threat, spread across the five ocean regions.
The reveal trailer ends on the sixth rule, which sets the tone for the deep-sea half of the map.
Rule 6: An island that changes position was not an island to begin with.
Ocean systems confirmed for the scenario
The scenario runs in two phases, and most of its content unlocks as server-wide World Progress and Scenario Progress climb. Calamity Towers activate in the sea over time, and the first server kill on each one mails rewards to everyone and pushes World Progress forward, speeding up the move into Phase II.
Haywire Zones
Haywire Zones are the scenario’s survival events, and each one rewrites the rules for a specific island group. Four types have been playable in testing.
| Haywire Zone | What changes |
|---|---|
| Mist of Deceit | Vision shrinks as your HP drops; light items push the mist back |
| Skyfire | Meteoric gold reshapes the volcanic region, with wealth inside the hot rock |
| Time Rain | Plants and animals grow fast; items and gear wear down fast |
| Black Tide | Pollution washes in on a cycle, raising new Pollution Zones |
Voyagers, Calamity Nests and The Sunken Lord
Voyagers are roaming ships that cruise random routes across the major waters. You can sink one from your own deck or board it and strip it for supplies, and bigger, better-equipped Voyagers hit harder while upgrading the Loot Crate rewards. On land, Calamity Nests spawn with randomized layouts packed with combat units, and clearing one means killing the Calamity Owl at its center.
The Sunken Lord is the scenario’s capstone fight. It appears after Phase II begins, once Purification Progress reaches 100 percent. The most recent test ran it as a four-player dungeon; an earlier build described it as an eight-player legion dungeon, so the final party size is the one that ships on launch day.
Naval combat and diving
Cannons are now selected through a wheel so you can swap to the right gun mid-fight, and the sailing camera was adjusted to suit that. Guns with projectile drop get a pre-aim line, and water territories start moving more easily with less of the old turning problem. Under the surface, the Abyssal Sea regions hand out Treasure Maps that point to hidden shipwrecks and laboratories holding rare loot.
Platforms, Game Pass and cross-play
Once Human only reached consoles on August 25, 2026, which makes Isles of Abyss the first major scenario console players get on the same day as everyone else rather than months later.
| Platform | At launch | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PS5 / PS5 Pro | Yes | Free update, DualSense support |
| Xbox Series X/S | Yes | Free update, cross-play |
| Xbox Game Pass | Yes | Member perks included |
| PC (Steam / Epic) | Yes | Free update, cross-play |
| iOS / Android | Yes | Same account, same cross-play pool |
| PS4 / Xbox One / Switch | No | Current-gen only |
Account linking is not account merging. If both accounts you are joining already have characters, you keep one set and lose the other, so link before you create a new console character rather than after.
How to reserve Isles of Abyss and claim the rewards
The reservation event is live, and it works like a pre-registration. Signing up costs nothing, and community milestones unlock rewards that are delivered once the scenario opens.
What happens to your current character and base
Nothing, unless you choose to start the new scenario. Isles of Abyss is not a global wipe, and existing scenario servers and permanent no-wipe servers keep running alongside it. If you do jump in, the standard scenario rules apply.
| Outcome | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Carries over | Name and appearance, cosmetics, blueprints and star ratings, Mods, furniture formulas, Battle Pass and story progress, Starchrom, Mitsuko’s Marks |
| Resets | Character level returns to 1; Memetics, map discovery, and base placement are reset. |
| Moves to Eternaland | Crafted items, materials, captured Deviations, regular resources; Energy Links convert to Astral Sand |
Entering a new scenario also grants Resource Points, which cap how much you can pull in from Eternaland. That is the mechanism stopping veterans from importing a finished build on day one.
Where the scenario stands right now
The final closed test for Isles of Abyss is underway, running from September 16 to October 8 PT in North America with roughly 4,000 players split between PC and console. It is a confidential NDA test with a data wipe at the end, structured as a five-day Phase I followed by a 17-day Phase II, though those durations apply to the test schedule rather than the shipping version.
Testers earn Wish Emblems that carry over to the live server and can be spent in the Starwish Shop, plus the Jade Nocturne cosmetic on the seventh sign-in day. A parallel feedback event pays out Stardust Secret Crate S14 (Epic) and Wish Emblems for valid bug reports and suggestions, with Battle Pass: Advanced Edition vouchers for the top 20 on the points leaderboard.
What else is landing around the ocean update
Visuals, first-person and performance
Lighting, sky effects and water physics are all being reworked, which matters more in a scenario where you spend hours on and under water. First-person is getting continued work on movement, animation and weapon feedback rather than being left as a toggle, and multi-platform performance optimization is ongoing. On console, Quality Mode targets 4K/60 and Performance Mode targets 120fps, so pick one before you are caught in a storm at sea.
Endgame dungeons and the mod overhaul
New endgame dungeons are being built around progression rather than one-off clears, extending what high-tier content like Securement Silo – Psi (Nightmare) already does. Alongside that, the mod system is being reworked, covering guaranteed shiny mod drops and how suffixes are acquired through the Backpack and the Suffix Mod Selection Crate.
The new sound-themed Vision
A new Vision built around sound is in the pipeline, fronted by a giant siren creature. The current Gravity Abyss season has been extended to November 18 to make room for the shifted schedule.
Visional Wheel cadence and the Lunar revamp
The Visional Wheel is moving to an adjusted release cadence of four challenges spread across the year instead of a tighter cycle. Revamped Lunar-themed content is being estimated for early 2027, and no firm date has been locked in for its return.
The X Days Till The End collaboration
Once Human is crossing over with X Days Till The End, and the collaboration brings Echoes and Dao skills with it.
Beyond the ocean, the team has sketched out a PvE chapter built around capturing monsters, plus further scenarios that have not been announced. None of that has a date attached, which leaves October 22 as the one thing on the calendar worth planning around.
