Space Engineers: Apex Survival Live Now!

Hello, Engineers!

We’re excited to introduce Apex Survival, the next major evolution of Space Engineers. This free update brings new survival mechanics to the game, adding food, farming, environmental hazards, meaningful death and a brand-new buff system.

Everything is optional and fully configurable – you can fine-tune the experience to suit your playstyle. Whether you want a hardcore survival challenge where venturing outside a grid is a constant threat, or a relaxed farming loop while building your perfect base, Apex Survival lets you decide how to play.

The Apex Survival Pack includes new decorative blocks accompanying this update – perfect for bringing your bases to life. Add lush greenery, detailed grow spaces, and new design variants to create habitats that feel vibrant and lived-in.

Some time ago, we were approached by our friend (and long-time fan of Space Engineers) Dean Hall from RocketWerkz. We had several conversations about what survival means in Space Engineers, and how enhancing and expanding our survival gameplay could deliver a deeper and more immersive experience for our players.

We're grateful for his insights and encouragement, helping us to make survival in Space Engineers better than ever!

We’re bringing you all the important gameplay changes for free in our Apex Survival Update.

You don’t need to start a brand-new world to experience the new features (including the new Space encounters) – they can all be enabled on your old saves.

Food is now a core survival mechanic in Apex Survival, enabled by default in all new survival worlds (and off by default in creative mode). A new food bar has been added to the HUD when enabled, giving you another vital resource to manage.

Food consumption is customizable with a new world setting:

Disabled – Food system is off
Slow – 3 hours from full to empty
Moderate (Default) – 1.5 hours
Fast – 45 minutes

Let your food bar run dry, and you’ll take damage until death. Drop below 20% food and you’ll face debuffs – losing 1% movement speed per missing percent, and eventually losing the ability to sprint entirely.

🥕 Food Items & Ingredients

Apex Survival introduces 9 new food items that act as ingredients for crafting Meal Packs. While many of these can be eaten raw in a pinch, their nutritional value is limited – combining them into prepared meals is the key to efficient survival. Planning your food supply and crafting recipes will give you a big advantage when living off the land.

🌿 Foraging, Hunting, and Obtaining Food Items

Food in Apex Survival comes from a variety of sources. Algae is your most basic and accessible food source, harvested using the Algae Farm block. It's not glamorous, but it gets the job done, making it ideal for early survival in any environment.

Other ingredients can be found through foraging, hunting, and exploration:

New forageable bushes spawn across Pertam, Earthlike and Alien planets. Earthlike is the richest in vegetation, while Pertam is sparse and Alien is rich in edible mushrooms.
These can be harvested by hand or via Collector blocks, and they will respawn over time if cleanup conditions are met.
Wolves now drop Mammal Meat, and Sabiroids drop Insect Meat.
NPCs and Encounters may contain lootable food items, especially in kitchen areas.
Unknown Signals often hold seeds, and NPC Trade Stations sell both seeds and food supplies.

🌱 Harvesting Seeds

To start farming, you’ll need seeds - and that’s where the Food Processor comes in. Inside its production menu, you’ll find a "Harvesting" category that allows you to convert Fruit, Grain, Mushroom, and Vegetable items into Seed or Spore Packs. These can then be placed in Farm Plots to begin growing your own renewable food sources.

🌾 Farming

Farming in Apex Survival is split between two key blocks: the Algae Farm and the Farm Plot.

Algae Farms are low-maintenance, sunlight-driven blocks that generate Algae over time. They don’t require special components or upkeep, but their output depends entirely on sun exposure. They’re a great early-game food source and work well in most situations.

Farm Plots are more complex but also far more rewarding. These blocks require active maintenance and care to function efficiently. They come with an internal water tank that must be filled via an attached Irrigation System - a block that processes ice into water for your crops. No water means dead crops.

Farm Plots grow Fruit, Grain, Mushrooms, and Vegetables, each with unique growth speeds, water consumption, and yields. Crops have health values and are sensitive to environmental factors:

Running out of water causes gradual health loss.
Exposure to vacuum or extreme temperatures kills crops in seconds.
Damaging the plot kills the crop.
Grinding the plot removes the crop.
Crops below 100% health can still be harvested, but with reduced yield.

Each crop passes through multiple growth stages, and once fully grown, water consumption drops by 90%, allowing you to leave crops as decorative elements with minimal upkeep.

Farming interactions:

Manual Harvest: Use the management screen to collect crops directly into your inventory.
Automated Harvest: Use a Collector on a subgrid placed near the plot to harvest automatically into your grid’s inventory. (Same-grid collection is not supported.)

Farming Tips

Water Is Life: The Farm Plot has an internal water tank. It must be filled via an Irrigation System, which processes ice into usable water. Without water, crops quickly lose health and may die.
Power Matters: The Farm Plot consumes 20 watts of power. Turning it off disables the light and water intake – but crops will still grow and consume water. Only damage or disabling the block will kill the crop instantly.
The built-in light on the Farm Plot is for ambiance only and has no gameplay impact. Turning off the block disables the light and stops water from refilling, but crops will still grow as normal.
Growth & Harvest: Each crop type has a full lifecycle with health, growth stages, and a recovery rate. Once mature, they can be harvested manually or automatically using collectors (on subgrids only). If a crop’s health drops to zero, it will perish.
Mod-Friendly Design: The Farm Plot supports a wide array of customization for mods, including multiple seed types, growth models, recovery rates, and water needs. Modders can define custom behavior and visuals per crop type – even requiring more seeds for larger plot types.

🥩 Meal Pack Crafting

Survival in Apex isn't just about finding food - it's about making it count. The Survival Kit can craft the most basic ration: Kelp Crisp, made solely from algae. It’s low-effort, low-impact, and great in a pinch.

For more advanced meals, you’ll need the Food Processor. This block serves as a more advanced crafting hub for all food items. In addition to cooking raw Mammal and Insect Meat, making them safe to eat, it offers a wide variety of Meal Pack recipes that use multiple ingredients. The more complex the recipe, the better the food’s nutritional value and the longer it will sustain you.

And good news, everyone: Food never spoils - so you can stock up and prepare in advance for longer journeys or hostile environments.

🎁 Looted/Easter Egg Food Items

We’ve also added rare, loot-only consumables that can’t be crafted in the Food Processor and are only found through exploration, encounters, or looting NPCs. But beware - not everything you scavenge is safe. Some of these "delicacies" might come with unexpected (or unpleasant) side effects.

Are you hungry enough to take the risk? You never know - it might just be worth it…

Apex Survival introduces new mechanics that can make staying alive more rewarding – and dying more costly.

New World Option: Reduced Stats on Respawn

To raise the stakes, the new Reduced Stats on Respawn world option starts you at just 20% across all vitals (health, food, energy, oxygen, and hydrogen) when you respawn outside of a starter craft. It’s no longer just a quick reset – death has become something to avoid.

New World Option: Survival Buffs

With the new Survival Buff system, your character gains powerful bonuses for surviving the dangers of the frontier. Every 45 minutes spent alive grants a level, which gives you significant advantages at maximum level. But beware: dying resets all progress. Survival ensures your hard-earned buffs.

You can check your active buffs at any time with Shift+B, or rebind this in your game options.

Space is no longer just cold and empty – now it’s dangerous, too. Apex Survival adds environmental hazards like weather, radiation, and updated meteor storms that directly affect your survival and your builds.

Radiation

Radiation introduces a persistent environmental threat that challenges players to build smart, stay shielded, and monitor their surroundings.

How Radiation Works:

Radiation accumulates when near a source and decreases when no longer exposed.
Safe spaces include sealed/pressurized environments, airtight cockpits, and cryopods.
At values above 75 radiation, characters begin to take damage.
At 100 radiation, damage increases significantly.
The character’s radiation level is shown on the HUD.
Note: Playing with Radiation requires Airtightness to also be enabled in the world’s settings.

Solar Radiation

The sun becomes a radiation emitter.
This type of radiation is disabled by default. We view this radiation source as a “Hardcore” player’s setting. There is a dropdown in world settings which modifies the intensity of solar radiation, allowing it to be configured to the player’s desired level of difficulty.
Exposure depends on whether the character is in direct sunlight.
The atmosphere on Earth-Like, Alien, Titan, and Triton provide full protection.
Mars and Pertam provide reduced protection, not enough to prevent exposure over time.
The Moon and Europa offer no protection at all.

Planetary Radiation

Europa is now a source of radiation, exposing the character to higher amounts the closer they get to the surface.

Weather-Based Radiation

Certain weather conditions are now radioactive:
Electric Storms on Pertam
Toxic Haze on the Alien planet
Rain has a cleansing effect, gradually reducing radiation buildup.

Block-Based Radiation

Damaged reactors now leak radiation. The closer the character is to the damaged reactor, the higher their exposure level.
Unlike other sources, this radiation is powerful and can leak through grids and structures - there is no cover, and it can be very dangerous if left unattended.
Reactor size directly impacts the amount of radiation gained per second, and also dictates the size of the contaminated area.
Only Nuclear Reactor blocks are impacted, the Prototech Fusion Reactor does not emit radiation when damaged.

Radiation Countermeasures

A new consumable has been added: Anti-Radiation MedKit
Grants 10 minutes of immunity from all radiation sources.
Gradually clears accumulated radiation over 30 seconds.
This item can not be crafted, and can only be looted from encounters and NPC storage.

Weather Hazards

All weather effects have been updated with new values and improved visuals. Some extreme weather types are now directly hazardous to characters, dealing damage over time when exposed. Grids are not affected, and shelter will fully protect characters from these effects.

Sandstorms can be encountered on Mars, Titan, Pertam, Earthlike and Alien planets.
Hailstorms can be encountered on Mars, Titan, Triton, Earthlike and Alien planets.
Caustic Rain and Toxic Haze can be encountered on the Alien Planet.
Electric Storms can be encountered on Pertam.

Meteors

Meteors have been reworked to feel more natural and immersive. Meteors can still damage players and grids, they’re no longer a primary threat – instead, they bring excitement to otherwise quiet corners of the universe.

Meteors no longer target grids directly. Instead, they spawn near the player and pass through the area, adding atmospheric flair rather than devastation.
A new event system ensures that meteor showers don’t stack in multiplayer – no more getting hit repeatedly just because you’re near other players.
Meteors no longer deform voxels or leave craters on impact.
Planets like Earthlike and Alien have thick atmospheres that block meteors entirely, making them safe zones.

Apex Survival brings a fresh batch of content to space with 30 brand-new Space Encounters. These new encounters offer a wide range of gameplay – from curious exploration opportunities and light storytelling to unexpected dangers that will challenge your survival instincts. All legacy encounters have been removed, ensuring every encounter you discover feels new and purpose-built for the current game experience.

These random Encounters remain a space-exclusive feature and spawn only at predefined locations determined by your world seed. The system itself hasn't changed, but to improve clarity, the world setting formerly known as “Encounter Density” has been renamed to “Random Encounter Density.” This setting still controls how frequently these encounters appear in your world.

Reorganized World Settings

The world settings menu has been streamlined and reorganized into clear, intuitive categories. Settings are now grouped based on their function, making it easier to find and adjust the options that matter most for your gameplay style.

Additionally, tooltips for all world settings have been revised for clarity - giving you better insight into how each setting affects your survival experience.

We’ve substantially increased the drop rates for all skins on Steam from Unknown Signals until September 22. Strong Unknown Signals, which have a chance to drop the rarest skins, are especially rewarding during this period. We’ve also reduced the cooldown between possible skin drops, so you’ll have more chances to earn cosmetic rewards as you play.

Happy hunting, Engineers!

The next 208 update will bring a welcome focus on bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements. We’re also researching the much-requested joystick support, and we still have a few surprises up our sleeve.

Over the past updates, we've reworked nearly every aspect of PvE: Prototech, Factorum global encounters and planetary encounters in Contact, Cargo Ships and Unknown Signals in Fieldwork, and now Hazards and Space Encounters in Apex Survival. The last major piece of that PvE puzzle? Economy stations and missions in the 209 update.

We can’t wait to show you what’s next.

	Algae Farm (1 block, L grid) - The Algae Farm passively produces a very small amount of the algae item for use in crafting rations. When in sunlight this block produces items, which are deposited directly into its own inventory. Efficiency is dependent upon how direct the sun exposure is on the block.
	Farm Plot (1 block, L grid) - An open planter bed with soil at the center. Perfect for cultivating a wide range of crops.
	Irrigation System (1 block, L grid) - This block consumes ice and distributes water to all connected planter beds.
	Food Processor (1 block, L grid) - An advanced food preparation and packaging system capable of crafting a wide range of meal packs and harvesting seeds and spores for gardening.

We are always looking for ways to improve, and that includes adding value to prior releases. During this update, we are adding new content to Fieldwork Pack.

Those who already own Fieldwork Pack will get this content for free, as part of the update.

Corridor Round Door Inv. (1 block, L grid) - Mirrored version of Round Passage Door.

Similar to our previous major releases, we hope you will take this opportunity to support the continued development of Space Engineers. This DLC pack consists of cosmetic items that enrich your game visually. None of the features in this package provide any advantage to players who purchase this DLC.

The price of the Apex Survival Pack is $4.99 USD or your regional equivalent. Show your continued support for Space Engineers and check out the Apex Survival Pack.

	Welder Type II (1 block, L grid + 1 block, S grid) - A production-line inspired welder that adds a bold, mechanical aesthetic to your engineering projects.
	Grinder Type II (1 block, L grid + 1 block, S grid) - Let your salvage rig tear down grids in style with this heavy industrial grinder!
	Drill Type II (1 block, L grid + 1 block, S grid) - A bucket-scoop style drill built for heavy duty excavation operations.
	Half Oxygen Farm (1 block, L grid) - Designed for both functionality and style, this Oxygen Farm can provide breathable air while also serving as a decorative wallpiece.
	Half Algae Farm (1 block, L grid) - Dual glass water reservoirs which house large masses of alien kelp that can be harvested and processed into foodstuffs.
	Inset Terrarium Desert (1 block, L grid) - A small slice of Pertam, carried with you on your adventures. Houses multiple insect species which are well suited for harsh environments.
	Inset Terrarium Forest (1 block, L grid) - A self-contained habitat reminiscent of lush forest regions on an Earthlike planet, filled with diverse and vibrant forms of life.
	Inset Planter (1 block, L grid) - A decorative planter bed fastened to a slow spinning circular frame, perfect for compact spaces and low gravity environments.
	Survival Kit Type II (1 block, L grid + 1 block, S grid) - The key part of surviving harsh alien worlds is having the right equipment at your disposal. This vertically oriented Survival Kit is all you need to establish a foothold in a new, dangerous region.
	Ore Detector Type II (1 block, L grid + 1 block, S grid) - Scan the surface of alien worlds in style!
	Storage Bin Set (3 blocks, L grid) - Flexible fabric containers for bulk goods, arranged in loose stacks or firmly strapped to pallets for transport.
	Conduit Set (11 blocks, L grid) - Twisting runs of electrical conduits, perfect for adding visual complexity and an industrial aesthetic to your builds.
	Warning Signs (3 blocks, L grid + 3 blocks, S grid) - Don’t be caught off guard, just beyond that door there’s radiation, extreme temperatures, and…Mmmm, Seared Sabiroid!

Added New Survival Features
- Optional Food System
- Farming & Harvesting/Hunting
- Meaningful Death & New Buff System
- Added Wild Plant Nodes to Planets
- Reorganized World Settings (Added many new survival options)
Added New Craftable Consumables
- Added 18 craftable food items
- Med Kits and Power Kits are now Craftable
Added New Non-craftable Consumables
- Anti-Radiation Med Kit - A new consumable medical item that assists in reducing radiation exposure, as well as granting temporary immunity from radiation sources. These items are not craftable, and can only be looted from NPCs, found in Unknown Signals, or bought from economy stations in very limited quantities.
- Plus more unique consumables - keep an eye out during your explorations!
Added New Environmental Hazard Options
- Radiation
  - Block Based Radiation (Damaged Reactors)
  - Solar Radiation (Some planetary atmospheres can provide protection.)
  - Weather Influenced Radiation (Unique storms on Alien Planet and Pertam.)
  - Planetary Radiation (Europa’s surface is now very dangerous.)
- Overhauled Weather Effects and Danger
  - Rain (Washes away Radiation)
  - Caustic Rain (Causes damage over time to players)
  - Hailstorm (Causes damage over time to players)
  - Sandstorm (Causes damage over time to players)
  - High/Low Winds (Impacts wind power generation)
  - Extreme Cold/Heat (Suit Energy Drain / Impacts wind and solar)
  - Electric Storm (Radiation, Damage Over Time, Lightning)
  - Alien Fog / Toxic Haze (Radiation)
- Overhauled Meteor Options
Added 30 New Random Encounters
New Collector Block Feature - Harvesting; Automatic Collecting from Farm Plots and wild plant nodes
Added Offensive AI Trigger Actions
Rebalanced Character Oxygen Storage Capacity
Rebalanced/Reworked crafting costs of Hand Tools and Hand Weapons
Environment Lighting Changes
Added New Skybox
New Starter Rover for Planetary Starts
Added New Sounds

Character Components are no longer based on MyCharacterComponent and have their own type if you want to use them in mod code. Those are:
- MyInventorySpawnComponent
- MyCharacterWeaponPositionComponent
- MyCharacterRagdollComponent
- MyCharacterPickupComponent
- MyCharacterOxygenComponent
- MyCharacterJetpackComponent
You have to use the MyCharacterStatComponent type to get that component from the component collection.

Stability

Fixed a crash when placing a (modded) block which did not have any dummies defined
Fixed a crash when the game was downloading banners

Functional

Fixed an issue with Airtightness where an airlock featuring a Half-door block would depressurise even when still sealed after opening the door
Fixed an issue with Airtightness where an airlock featuring an Offset Door would depressurise even when still sealed after opening the door
Fixed an issue with Airtightness where pressurising a room too fast and using a gas generator without a tank failed to consume any ice in the process
Fixed an issue with Airtightness where the character inside of a pressurised grid could still suffocate when near Offset or Half doors
Fixed an issue with Airtightness where the merging of two pressurised rooms caused it all to depressurise despite being sealed
Fixed an issue with Airtightness where the pressurisation status around a grid was not being properly updated, when Show Horizon was off
Fixed an issue with Antennas where broadcast messages and actions were received even when the sending antenna was off
Fixed an issue with “Can Use all Terminals” where the Space Master in MP or the player (Admin) in SP could not opt-out of the setting voluntarily to be treated as regular players
Fixed an issue with Cargo Ships where Medical Shuttle was spamming with a broadcast controller; Also Pirate Vulture had incorrect color of some armor panels
Fixed an issue with Cargo Ships where they would not spawn at all in worlds with limited size if the position 0,0,0 was currently obstructed by a grid or a planet
Fixed an issue with Economy where Prototech scrap could not be sold by players to Trader factions
Fixed an issue with Environmental items where their generation was dependent on current and previous level of detail, leading to fewer trees or ghost trees
Fixed an issue with Gatling Gun Turrets (Small grid) where their inventory volume was not a multiple of the volume of the ammo boxes
Fixed an issue with Global Permission Allow Damage where Explosion damage was not prevented properly
Fixed an issue with Inset Refill Station where it was not visually and functionally airtight; Model is now sealed and block is airtight
Fixed an issue with Jump Drive where the exit point of a jump could end up in natural gravity when the distance was truncated due to insufficient jump power to mass ratio
Fixed an issue with Laser Antenna where a connection would be obscured by a Safe Zone bubble
Fixed an issue with Learning to Survive where the Last Boss did not have ammo
Fixed an issue with Lost Colony where the Vaughn Brothers and Comm Tower was damaged by friendly turret fire due to outdated targeting flags
Fixed an issue with Meteor showers where the perceived frequency of the events from player PoV could be lower than set up Hostility due to the event spawning around any grid in the world; New meteors spawn around player characters
Fixed an issue with Random Encounters where clientside or SP re-generation of encounters around a player position would be skipped for that cell if they were not marked as persistent
Fixed an issue with Random Encounters where the associated encounter voxel still spawned even after the grids failed to spawn due to running out of NPC PCU
Fixed an issue with Random Encounters where they were being populated with random loot
Fixed an issue with Third Person camera where it could be moved by an obstruction into a position in-between two connected connectors
Fixed an issue with Thruster Dampening where a subgrid without dampeners was not counted as dead weight to compensate against
Fixed an issue with Turrets where a grid was discarded as invalid for targeting just because another grid was closer, but out of sight
Fixed an issue with Turrets where they did not choose closer valid targets with higher priority over further ones with equal or lower priority
Fixed an issue with Turrets where they would ignore a target hidden behind a wall attached by a subgrid
Fixed an issue with Turrets where they would not mark a target as visible due to searching for it at the position of the last target
Fixed an issue with Weather where it ends and starts too abruptly without any falloff when it is global
Fixed an issue with Weather would end or start without a transition if weather event times overlapped
Fixed an issue with Weather where the tag GlobalWeather was not working for planets
Fixed an issue with Wheel Suspension where it was not possible to add a wheel even if the result would not collide with surrounding blocks
Fixed an issue with Wolves where their walk speed was faster than the animation. Walk speed now lowered to match the animation
Fixed an issue with Wolves where they were unable to howl while wandering around; Known issue: Howl sounds currently cannot be heard by Clients on DS

Modding

Fixed an issue with ModAPI (Ingame) raycasts not able to detect trees
Fixed an issue with ModAPI DeleteFileInWorldStorage where the check for file presence was done in Local storage
Fixed an issue with ModAPI IMyTerminalBlock.SetValue crashing a script
Fixed an issue with ModAPI where GetValue generic type was replaced with MemorySafe version; StringBuilder can be handled by MemorySafeStringbuilder
Fixed an issue with ModAPI where the "as" and "is" keywords and collections with generic type were not rewritten to MemorySafe
Fixed an issue with ModAPI where the conversion to MemorySafe type failed; API methods which returned new collections have been marked obsolete; New versions with parameters are available
Fixed an issue with ModSDK Animation Controller where it failed to load any data
Fixed an issue with ModSDK Animation Controller where it failed to save the changes
Fixed an issue with ModSDK Model Viewer where the Sun Intensity default value was not matching the in-game setting

Render

Fixed an issue with Environmental item render where a collision free tree replaced a destroyed one

Fixed an issue with "Piston head already exists" where it appeared even when the attachment wasn't a piston
Fixed an issue with Advanced World Settings Planetary Encounters and Global Encounter Cap tooltips
Fixed an issue with Autosave checkbox status not being saved when leaving the screen
Fixed an issue with Economy screen backgrounds being too opaque even when UI opacity is set to low
Fixed an issue with Enable Unknown Signals setting where it was possible to change it for Scenarios
Fixed an issue with Entity List where Ctrl+A would select even filtered out items
Fixed an issue with Help screen where the Wiki link was outdated
Fixed a typo in HUD text when attempting to use more than one consumable item at a time

Art

Fixed a set of visual issues with Bridge (Raised/Half) Sloped Corner (Floorless) blocks
Fixed a set of visual issues with Bridge Sloped Corner Base (and Floorless)
Fixed a set of visual issues with Lab Hydrogen Tank
Fixed a set of visual issues with Microscope Lab Desk
Fixed a set of visual issues with Passage 2 Side
Fixed an issue with (Advanced) Rotor (Small grid) bases where their collision was too tall
Fixed an issue with Corridor Round Light where the light offset position dummy was rotated
Fixed an issue with Industrial Assembler LodD1 where the 2nd floor interactive part was missing a highlight
Fixed an issue with Lab Door (Inv.) where the collisions were too narrow for the character to get through
Fixed an issue with Lab Experiment B where const. stage had partially missing collisions
Fixed an issue with Lab Experiment C where const. stage had a see-through part
Fixed an issue with Lab O2/H2 Generator was not visually airtight
Fixed an issue with Lab Small Hydrogen Tank where const. stage beams did not connect visually
Fixed an issue with Lab Small Oxygen Tank LoD0 and LoD1 inconsistency
Fixed an issue with Lab Vat where the bubbles were escaping from the top
Fixed an issue with Medical Room where both LCDs displayed the same content due to missing material
Fixed an issue with Oxygen Tank (Small grid) where the ringed ridge detail was above the emissives
Fixed an issue with shading with Cab Cockpit
Fixed an issue with Small Inset Connector (Large grid) where part of the structure was missing

Audio

Fixed a set of issues in Audio definitions where VolumeVariation tag was misspelled, causing the effect to be missing
Fixed an issue with Sound Volume where it is reset to 100% after disabling Contextual music and reloading