Yet Another Zombie Survivors Patch History

This is not a dump of every Steam news post. It is the archaeology layer: which Early Access systems you still feel in 1.0, and which ones the launch rebuilt. For the launch day list, use version 1.0. For “is the game out,” use the review.

2023: the city and the joke name

Early Access opened 13 July 2023 (Steam’s EA date; some wikis mistype the year). Isolated City, SWAT / Tank / Engineer, auto-fire, refundable Training. Huntress, Ghost, and Medic were the first unlocks. Reviewers called it an obvious Vampire Survivors cousin with a squad twist and more production than a weekend clone. That sentence is still the pitch.

0.3: Vile Wasteland

Desert, worm, mummies, scarabs. The worm is still the best environmental teacher in the game. Achievements around feeding it and getting slapped by it still exist. See maps.

0.4: Boss Rush and One Hit

These modes arrived as Hardcore cousins. 1.0 kept One Hit’s joke and rebuilt Boss Rush. If a guide from 2024 tells you Boss Rush is “endless elites,” throw the guide away.

Mid EA: Green Hell, Dead Terminal, Mechanic, Pyro

The map count went from one to many. Mechanic’s activation counter was 5,000, then 4,000 in 0.9.1. Pyro joined as burn. Silhouettes promised a ninth survivor. That ninth survivor is Ranger.

0.7–0.9: QoL that 1.0 still uses

Radar minimap. Auto Selection for power-ups. Pause-menu DPS. Better evolution text. Item swap full descriptions. Interface scaling. Steam Deck verification. Badge talk that later became leader perk work. 0.9’s public blog also previewed the camp, story, torments, fifth tree ranks, prestige, and “at least one main boss per map.” 1.0 is that preview with a date.

0.9.1 and the last mile

Tooltip honesty, Mechanic discount, small gun tweaks (chainsaw hitbox, clip sizes). The important part for wiki writers: believe in-game numbers after this point, not a Fandom table from 2023.

1.0 launch day

Ranger, Bio Lab, HUB, quests, prestige, arena bosses, rebuilt Boss Rush, consoles. Early Access is closed as a branch. Your save should carry; if it does not, that is a support ticket, not a wiki table. F8 in-game, Discord, or [email protected].

How to read future notes

If a patch changes an unlock counter, the unlock checklist is the page we will touch first. If a patch changes a gun fork, weapon tiers is second. If a patch adds a map, maps is third. The studio’s public board remains the Trello. Steam news remains the legal source. This page remains the translation.

You do not need this history to dawn Isolated City. You need it when a friend quotes a 2023 Medic farm time and you want to know why your kit counter disagrees.

What a 1.0 player can ignore

You can ignore the exact week Green Hell shipped. You can ignore whether Boss Rush in 0.4 had a timer. You can ignore Fandom upgrade point totals if the node on your screen says otherwise. You cannot ignore that exclusive weapon lines exist, that rescues give half perks, and that Training refunds. Those rules survived every patch on this page.

If you are writing a recap for a friend who quit in 2023, the short letter is: the city is no longer the whole game, Ranger exists, Bio Lab is a ring, there is a camp, story is optional, consoles exist, SWAT still works. Then send them Getting Started and version 1.0. This history page is for the person who already loves the worm.