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Autumn Update
September 21, 2026 at 06:12 AM
Initial version (2026-09-21)
The Autumn Update is the first major update to Romestead and the first milestone on the Act I Early Access roadmap. Beartwigs released it on the default branch on August 31, 2026 as version 0.26.1 (build 25041797), roughly three months after launch. The release was timed with the Steam PvE Survival Crafting Fest of August 31 to September 7, 2026, a pairing announced on August 18.
Four follow-up patches (0.26.1_3 through 0.26.1_6) landed in the first week of September; the default branch has sat at 0.26.1_6 (build 25128773) since September 4, 2026. The full patch history is on Updates and Patches.
The new dungeons only appear in worlds created after the update, because Romestead places every dungeon, location and boss when a world is generated and there is no space to add new ones later without overwriting existing ones. Nearly everything else works in an existing world, though the studio recommended a fresh one for the better dungeoneering experience. Existing saves are safe: in the studio's words, "You don't lose worlds from older versions. They just don't get the new dungeons." Beartwigs said it was looking at options for a longer-term solution; none had been announced as of September 2026.
Version 0.26.1 added Steam Input support, which the studio called the first official support for Steam Input. The store page now lists full controller support, DualShock and DualSense controller support, and Steam Input API support; before the update it carried no controller category. This closed the gap left at launch, when a release-build setting had made the game treat controllers as mouse and keyboard and only partial support was live. The follow-up patches below restored the Quick Heal action and re-bindable movement and UI keys, fixed Loot All and Quick Stack, and made the Construction, Logistics and Furniture modes and the construction camera re-bindable. Controls and Keybinds has the bindings.
The update added over twenty new unique dungeons, the figure in the shipped change log (the August 18 preview had said over thirty). The larger ones carry unique loot, and this time it is not trinkets but a handful of new weapons, which the studio did not name. Several rare multi-floor dungeons appeared for the first time, with a door or stairway leading further down to more treasure and resources. Chests now draw from themed loot tables: a satyr camp holds more food and drink, while a foundry full of Cyclopelli yields more metals and tools. New assets, including a massive tree, were added.
Challenge dungeons were completely overhauled. The layout around each entrance is larger, with pillars and paths to move around, so players are no longer bottlenecked at the door. Room reset on death, first introduced in launch-week hotfix 0.25.1_3, keeps enemies from piling up around the entrance. Enemies spawn in greater variety, including rat packs, rare Gorgon swarms and strategically positioned ranged fallen, and many rooms now hold deadly traps, some new to the game. Rooms per biome increased significantly, over seventy in total, with new themes: forest cavern and crypts, desert crypts, and a volcanic cavern, crypt and foundry. See Enemies and Bosses for the roster.
The published change log covers additions, fixes, balancing and the beta branch content. The table gives the highlights by system in the log's wording.
System | Highlights in 0.26.1 |
|---|---|
General | Added Steam Input Support (Controller Support). Fixed parts of the desert not being possible to reach on some worlds. Added Thai translations and font rendering. Fixed decimal points not showing on stats. Save-data, Alt+Enter fullscreen, unfocused-input, volcano loading lag and many rare crash fixes. |
Added new Carpenter job: Repair. Carpenter will now work better and get stuck less. Added more variation to the Citizen Requests. | |
Network code made more efficient, responsive and stable, tolerating longer periods of bad connection. Added Network quality indicator and warning, including the quality of other players connections. | |
Performance | Improved performance of game on processors with few CPU cores. |
Added a drop-off zone to the Material Storage that never fills up. Added a new Farmland removal tool. The Crop removal tool will now return the seed of the crop. Demolishing Decorations and upgraded Buildings now returns the materials, including previous tiers. | |
Added ability to sleep in more types of beds. Rug furniture lootable out in the world. Furniture search bar no longer case sensitive. | |
Dungeon Overhaul (see above). Fixed the spike puzzle in Flamines Volcanalis Foundry sometimes not having a valid path to cross. Fixed some minor issues with dungeon quests. | |
Items and Treasure | Added new weapons as dungeon rewards. Bows can now receive the Precise and Strong modifiers. Pristine armour modifiers now give Crit Damage instead of melee damage. Crafted capes can now receive modifiers. Updated droptables. Added new spells to some scrolls. |
Enemies | Aggressive fallen spawn rarer near the volcano's edge. Added sprite for Arrow Trap enemy. Ashmen no longer take only 1 damage from fire spells. Satyrs no longer immune to auras. Improved Magus spell behaviours. Fallen Bloat explodes faster. Summoned enemies no longer drop loot. |
Bosses | New Phoenix Fight Changes, no longer labelled experimental as on the beta branch. Fixed Cyclops boss fight sometimes being unable to progress. |
Fauna and Flora | Small animals picked up by players will no longer despawn. Snakes immune to poison and root. Scorpions no longer immune to burning. Fixed fruit trees not shaking properly when hit. |
Sound and Music | Fixed music stuttering, sound looping while paused, and deafening coal traps and braziers. Removed buzzing insect in plains ambience. |
The studio had said it would spend the week after release on patches before turning to the next major update. Four default-branch patches followed; no 0.26.1_1 or 0.26.1_2 note was published.
Version | Date | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
0.26.1_3 | September 1, 2026 | Quick Heal action added back and placed in the Steam Input action manifest; re-bindable movement and UI navigation keys added back. Fixed server config sometimes resetting. Added new map markers. Farmer beehive job visible at all times; Carpenter defaults to the Constructing job. Mirage scroll summons no longer block Challenge Dungeon gates. Fixed broken droptables and Phoenixes not dropping raw meat. |
0.26.1_4 | September 2, 2026 | Loot All and Quick Stack actions fixed, with advice to reset changed Steam Input layouts to the recommended templates. Added a Deposit All button to inventories. Fixed the furniture mode shift button. Crafters can grab items from material storage through the logistics tent connection. A cancelled trade route dumps its goods outside the Trading Post after a failed deposit. Walls repairable from 10 percent lost health. Updated Medusa's Lair. See Automation and Trade. |
0.26.1_5 | Released September 3, notes September 4, 2026 | Movement in the Construction, Logistics and Furniture modes and the construction camera re-bindable on PC. Fixed some big lag spikes. Fixed Carpenters sometimes not constructing properly. Fixed the art of Arrow Traps. |
0.26.1_6 | September 4, 2026 | Fixed dialogue option positioning on Steam Deck and other small UI widths. Added localization to the credits. Fixed Deposit All into Food Storage. Fixed an incorrect dungeon entrance for Savage Treasures. |
Chest sorting. The June roadmap named it as the example quality-of-life item; as of September 2026 no default-branch patch note from 0.26.1 through 0.26.1_6 lists it.
The Furniture Mode toggle. On August 18 the studio said the update would replace the Press R Furniture Mode toggle with holding the interact button to pick up furniture. The shipped log does not list that change, and patches 0.26.1_4 and 0.26.1_5 still refer to a Furniture mode, so treat the removal as announced only.
Itemised beta content. The log says the update includes the beta branch content, but two 0.25.2_2 items, the Sausage recipe and the Potter's maximum level of 5, are not listed individually.
On September 2, 2026 Beartwigs announced that the game had passed 500,000 players in the three months since launch, and said the next major update would be bigger than this one, with a new biome, new enemies, new equipment, treasures, new buildings and new bosses. It shared concept art by Josh Robbins, one of the artists on the game, with a disclaimer that it does not represent the final product.
On September 18, 2026 the studio published the first of a planned series of bi-weekly studio updates. It announced that Romestead is Steam Deck Verified (see System Requirements) and that community translators are now credited in-game. Work had officially begun on the next biome, with new enemies, items and bosses, and a first internal playthrough of the grayboxed map was done. With that update still a few months away, a smaller, snack-sized content drop was planned first, hinted to be seasonally spooky. A developer Q&A was announced with a question thread to follow; as of September 21, 2026 no such thread had been opened on the game's Steam discussion boards.
