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Wildlife Update
October 13, 2026 at 01:58 PM
Initial version (2026-10-13)
The Wildlife Update is the second major free content update for Outbound, released on Steam on September 22, 2026, a little over four months after launch. It fills the world with 34 species of animals, birds and insects spread across all four biomes, and it adds a way to document them: a craftable Photo Camera whose shots are logged in a new wildlife tab of the journal. It is the realized form of the Fall drop on the post-launch roadmap, which had promised more animals and wildlife, including flocks of birds.
Date | Platform or Channel | What Happened |
|---|---|---|
August 18, 2026 | Steam news post | Square Glade Games says the whole team is finishing the update for a release described as coming soon |
September 9, 2026 | Steam news post and teaser trailer | First feature list: wild animals, birds and insects, a customizable camera, photos saved to the computer and the Steam library, and journal entries for all wildlife |
September 22, 2026 | Steam | The Wildlife Update is released, with a new trailer and a 20% Steam discount to celebrate |
September 24, 2026 | Steam | Patch 1.2.1: bug fixes, performance improvements and clearer workstation descriptions |
September 28, 2026 | Steam | Patch 1.2.2: Paint needs 3 Flower Petals instead of 5, plus two fixes |
Around October 1, 2026 | Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 | The update reaches the Switch family, about a week after Steam |
The release post does not give the update its own version number; the two follow-up patches are numbered 1.2.1 and 1.2.2. On the Switch family the update went live on September 30 or October 1, 2026 depending on time zone. As of October 13, 2026 neither the studio's Steam posts nor the publisher's news page had listed separate dates for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S or the Epic Games Store, so the timing on those versions is not documented here.
Feature | Details |
|---|---|
Wildlife | 34 species of animals, birds and insects across the four biomes. The journal files 12 of them under The Outdoors, 8 under The Coast, 7 under the Canyons and 7 under the Mountains |
Wildlife Outpost | A new outpost in the first biome, where the blueprint for the camera is downloaded |
Photo Camera | A craftable camera with Exposure or Brightness, Depth of Field focus points, Saturation, Contrast and Zoom settings |
Photos | Every photo is saved to the hard drive and to the Steam library on PC |
Wildlife journal | The camera detects animals in view. Framing a species well and taking the shot marks it as collected in a new journal tab |
Binoculars | The static binoculars placed around the world can now be looked through for long-distance viewing, and once the camera is crafted they can take pictures too |
Wooden foundation | A new foundation with a closed wood floor instead of slats, available in the build menu straight away with no blueprint needed |
Fishing prompt | The fishing interaction prompt now only appears while standing still, so it no longer clutters the HUD while walking through water |
Cap 'n Snap machine | A new machine stocked with two rear-view mirror charms and two planters shaped like wildlife |
The heart of the update is wildlife photography. Visit the Wildlife Outpost in the first biome, take the Photo Camera blueprint from its download, and craft the camera from 3x Scrap Metal. The camera picks out animals in view automatically. When a species fills enough of the frame and you take the picture, it is marked as collected in the wildlife tab of the journal, so the update turns the game's no-harm approach to animals into a collection you can complete without touching a single creature.
Official screenshots of the journal show that several species carry more playful names than a plain description would suggest, among them Hazeldeer, Flametail Fox, Butterflake and Roseplume Flamingo, with species not yet photographed shown as question marks. The per-species list, the share of the frame each animal has to fill and tips for difficult subjects are on the Wildlife Photography page, while Animals and Wildlife covers how animals fit into the wider game.
For builders, the update adds a wooden foundation with a closed wood floor, an alternative to the slatted floor of the existing wooden foundation. It sits in the build menu immediately and needs no blueprint. See the Building System for how foundations fit into a build.
Collectors get a new Cap 'n Snap machine. It holds two more rear-view mirror charms, which the console patch notes describe as designed by Kickstarter backers, and two planters shaped like wildlife: the Animal Planter Deer and the Animal Planter Rabbit, each built from 2x Blossom Lumber and 1x Hyperfibre once its blueprint is collected. The Collectibles page covers the Cap 'n Snap set as a whole.
Pressing R to rotate a piece while building no longer opens the camera
Controllers can now select a Signal Tower that holds a signal in order to discard that signal
Fixed the drawbridge deck sometimes not lining up with the ramps after it is lowered
Fixed some floating fence objects, the footstep sound of wood on bridges, some deep gaps in the terrain, and the distant look of the flowers at the farm and the coffee farm
Fixed some issues with earning the Snapped 'Em All achievement
Downloading the fishing blueprint now ticks off the subtask for downloading the fishing rod
Autosaves no longer trigger just before leaving a biome, which could save the player in the wrong place
Fixed the planks in the ceiling of the treehouse hut
Removed the spots on vehicle roofs where birds could land, because they could cause a network error
Numerous performance improvements, clearer descriptions for downloads and research items that need a specific workstation such as the sewing table, more accurate rock colliders near the oases in the third biome, and higher resolution capybara textures without extra memory use
Paint at the Mortar and Pestle now needs 3 Flower Petals instead of 5
Fixed an unusual case where taking every blueprint from every Cap 'n Snap machine did not trigger the achievement
Pressing R to mark down a task no longer opens the camera
The update launched with an official Wildlife Update trailer on the publisher's video channel, and the same video was added to the game's Steam store page. It followed the shorter teaser from September 9, 2026; both are listed on the Trailers page. To mark the release, Outbound went 20% off on Steam. By October 13, 2026 the base game was back at its regular price of $24.99.
The Wildlife Update did not add any Steam achievements. As of October 13, 2026 the game still has 32, listed in the Achievement Guide. The follow-up patches only fixed tracking for the existing Snapped 'Em All achievement.
In the release post Square Glade Games said it will keep shipping smaller patches with bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements between major content updates, and that the next major update will bring "interactable townsfolk who have their own tasks, quests, and routines". As of October 13, 2026 that update has no release date. NPC Interactions explains what the game offers in the meantime, and the version history tracks every patch.
