NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE: THE FOREST UPDATE 🌲❄️

Major Content Drop | Now Live

Brace yourselves, survivors. A frozen island of death awaits. Introducing our most intense and atmospheric update yet: THE FOREST. This isn’t just a new map — it’s a whole new nightmare.

NEW CONTENT & FEATURES

🌲 New Map: The Forest

Explore a haunting snow-covered island located in the east Siberian Sea, an area buried in white silence and fear. You'll need stealth, speed, and precision — especially on Nightmare difficulty — to make it out alive.

👁️‍🗨️ New Enemy: The Apex Predator (Exclusive to The Forest)

Our first ever Boss-Class Enemy.

• Cannot be killed.
  
  

• Can only be stunned. (30 - 60 seconds until regaining consciousness)
  
  

• Spawns once randomly during a match
  
  

• Hunts purely by sound. (No sight capability)
  Use stealth to survive. Sneak... or stay frozen in place. One wrong step, and you're the prey.
  
  

🌊 Swimming & Breakable Icebergs (Forest-Exclusive Mechanics)

• Entering water rapidly drains your warmth — death by freezing is real.
  
  

• Cross icebergs to survive, but beware — they crack and shatter the longer you stand on them.
  Every step is a gamble.
  
  

🎵 New Soundtrack Additions

Brand-new environmental music and tension stingers for The Forest, designed to enhance immersion and keep you on edge.

🔧 FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS

• Temporarily removed flamethrower stalling mechanic — pending overhaul with new animations.
  
  

• Fixed flashlight drop bug when holding the revolver.
  
  

• Massive performance upgrades — including AI, lighting, reflections, fog, particle systems, dynamic sky, materials, and more. Huge boost for Low Island and overall framerate stability across the entire game.
  
  

• AI Navigation Overhaul — AI now:
  
  

  • Follows the fastest paths
    
    

  • Dynamically reroutes when stuck/ unable to find player
    
    

  • Can swim in Forest Map
    
    

• Fixed helicopter reinforcement spawn bug in cutscenes for clients, helicopter would appear under the map.
  
  

• Graphical fidelity improvements — decreased overall sharpness, and fog scattering effect.
  
  

• Fixed issue with missing heads when leech attacks + first-person animations were disabled.
  
  

• Accessories on skins now appear correctly in cutscenes.
  
  

• Fixed Gas Canister explosion replication bug.
  
  

• Map replay selection added — pick and revisit maps on mission failed/won screen.
  
  

• Dynamic main menu screen — updates to reflect selected map.
  
  

• Fixed Mimic barricade bug causing crash on pickup.
  
  

• Fixed GPU crashes & game/render thread stalls — smoother gameplay guaranteed.
  
  

• Hitbox system overhauled — better accuracy across all weapons.
  
  

• Fixed bullets being blocked by certain props (e.g. huskies).
  
  

• Fire system optimized — added pooling + fixed desync issues.
  
  

• Fixed snowmobiles triggering mission failed in evac zones.
  
  

• Open doors no longer block player movement.
  
  

• Photograph objective UI now displays your image during animations.
  
  

• Fixed Pickaxe disappearing bug.
  
  

🔮 WHAT'S NEXT?

• Forest Part 2 is on the way, featuring:
  
  

  • Overhauled player models with real first-person hands
    
    

  • New enemy type: The Cultist
    
    

  • Expanded lore and events tied to the Forest
    
    

• Additionally, our Technical Artist has wrapped another upcoming map — Facility-Based. We might sneak this into Part 2 if the timeline permits.
  
  

We’re listening closely to your feedback. This update wouldn’t be possible without the community — keep sending us bug reports, ideas, and chaos. See you in the snow, survivors. Stay quiet. Stay alive.

“Sound is death. Step carefully.”
– Nuclear Nightmare Dev Team