Folks,

GROUND BRANCH V1.0 is here.

In addition to the campaign's Prologue chapter — featuring 2 new Operations — this release includes a substantial enemy AI rework, the new armor system, a door overhaul, an updated map selection (2 brand-new maps, 2 ground-up remakes, a map overhaul and a few other map upgrades), the Extraction game mode, an update to character locomotion and other animations, a range of new weapons and gear, selectable moon phases, various upgrades to visuals and audio, a whole lot of bug and crash fixes, and more. All of which was built on a refactored foundation for increased stability and expandability.

💡 MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT INTEL REPORT #032[www.groundbranch.com] IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!

As detailed in our last dev blog[www.groundbranch.com], this is the beginning of the post-launch road. Each subsequent release on the roadmap will keep building on this foundation with new campaign missions, features, upgrades and fixes.

💡 In addition to the planned releases, hotfixes and smaller patches between major releases are also possible. Keep the feedback coming!

As a little gift to celebrate V1.0, GROUND BRANCH will be 20% off for a week. Grab a key or two while it's cheap!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/16900/GROUND_BRANCH/

🔥 If you're reading this that probably means you already own the game — time to make sure your non-GB-having friends hear about it so you have more people to team up with.

Without further ado, let's move on to the release notes. There's a lot of ground to cover.



Some of the changes both big and small that you're likely to spot within the first minutes of launching V1.0:

• We've updated the main menu with a new cinematic to set the mood for the campaign.
  
• Various bits of music have been added or updated, including the main menu tracks, stingers for screen transitions, and briefing music for the new Northwest Pakistan hotspot.
  
• An entirely new Ready Room has been created — it is now part of The Farm (aka Camp Peary, aka the training map). This new HQ is where you will be launching quick missions, online matches and the Prologue operations from.
  
• Other than making your operator look much cooler, the new character pose in the Customize Operator screen ensures your primary weapon is fully visible.
  
• Loading screens now have background images and a few other minor visual changes.

The highlight of this release and the very beginning of our campaign, Operations is once again available:

• Access it from the main menu to enter the Operations Menu, where you can browse available hotspots (CIA areas of interest) directly on the map or via the bottom-left list. Once a hotspot is hovered, a news feed will pop up in the top-right with recent events.
  
• New hotspot: Northwest Pakistan (Kill or Capture). This hotspot is home to our campaign's Prologue.
  
• New operations: 01. Onyx Flame and 02. Gilded Arrow are playable in succession — complete the first to unlock the other in either offline (solo) or online (solo or online co-op) mode.
  
• The briefings for both the hotspot and the individual missions are now fully voiced by characters John Hawk and team handler "Forge". Use the playback controls at the top of the text box to play/pause/rewind the audio.
  
• We don't want to spoil too much, but a lot of care was put into certain special scripted events for the new operations. Be on the lookout!

Hotspot briefing menu: note the audio playback controls in the top-right of the text box for playing/pausing/restarting the voice-over.

💡 Friendly AI will be reintroduced in Chapter 1 (V1.1.0 release), along with a set of new operations.

Lone Wolf and online games — whether co-op or PvP — have received some welcome upgrades for further immersion and replayability:

• Several game modes have team handler "Forge" reaching out via comms during key events (e.g. to recap mission objectives at mission start).
  
• The new Moon Phase mission parameter allows players to once again select their preferred level of darkness for night deployments, from a new moon all the way to a full moon. This can selected prior to launching the mission, or directly on the Ops Board right before deploying.
  
• Moonlight now casts shadows, creating near-perfect concealment — just make sure enemy patrols can't hear you moving around.

The enemy AI has received substantial updates to iron out frequent issues and ensure more reliable behavior and responsiveness:

• Targeting — Default aim point is now the pelvis. If only the head is visible, AI will now target it instead of losing the target. Higher-skilled AI default to chest or head shots.
  
• Perception and reaction — Maximum view distance increased from 100 m to 200 m. Alertness buildup rate adjusted to prevent AI from staring at players without reacting.
  
• Suppression and damage response — AI now react to being shot while unaware. Hits apply suppression and location data, triggering flee behavior even without line of sight to the attacker. This makes missed lethal shots more punishing, as wounded AI will seek cover before you can finish them.
  
• Defender AI — Enemies in guard mode are now tethered to their assigned guard points. They cannot leave a set radius but will turn toward sounds, allowing them to hear approaching players. On maps like Hospital (formerly RunDown), this keeps enemies holding rooms rather than funneling into fatal choke points.
  
• Guard point logic — AI now claim only one guard point at a time. Unclaimed points leave remaining AI idle. Guard points are released upon state changes.
  
• Morale and death awareness — AI now suffer suppression and morale loss when witnessing ally deaths. Combat actions now have a tangible impact on enemy decision-making.
  
• Retreat behavior — Retreat and flee duration now scale with skill level. Higher-skilled AI hold cover longer before breaking contact, making them feel more resilient overall.
  
• Performance — Behavior tree nodes migrated from Blueprint to C++ for improved performance and reliability.

New to V1.0 is the armor system. Helmets, plate carriers and bulletproof vests can now withstand various levels of damage by firearms, with some important caveats.

Hard armor refers to armor inserts (made of ballistic ceramics and commonly referred to as plates) that can stop up to a few round of full-sized caliber rounds such as 7.62 NATO (fired by many of the battle and precision rifles in the game) before being depleted. How it works in GROUND BRANCH is fairly simple:

• Armor inserts can now be carried in plate carrier-type Platforms such as the Plate Carrier (JPC) and Plate Carrier (MPC), which are now fitted with plates by default (note that if you have an old loadout for these items, it will not have plates).
  
• If you wish to add or remove individual plates to/from a plate carrier, click the gear icon (⚙️) and check the left side of the screen for the Armor Inserts section.
  
• Simply click the respective icon on the diagram to add or remove a specific plate.

Plate Carrier (MPC) equipped with front and back plates only (right and left side slots are empty).Ballistic protection with hard armor is limited to the area equivalent to the plates only — all other areas on the upper body will remain fully vulnerable.

🛡️ The Plate Carrier (MPC) can carry 4 plates: one in the front, one in the back, and one on either side.

🛡️ The Plate Carrier (JPC) can carry 2 plates: one in the front, and one in the back.

⚖️ Each front/chest or back plate adds 2.85 kg to your loadout. Side plates add 1 kg each.

Soft armor refers to Kevlar-like materials, used in bulletproof vests and helmets. This type of armor is mostly effective only against pistol rounds (whether fired from a handgun or submachine gun), but unlike hard armor it offers protection on almost all of the item's area.

• All helmets now offer limited protection against pistol rounds. Protection is relative to the coverage of each helmet's shell, meaning fuller helmets like the MICH offer a greater area of protection than high-cut helmets.
  
• The Body Armor platform (formerly "Bulletproof Vest") can also absorb a limited number of pistol round impacts in all of its area of coverage, which is most of the torso. The Body Armor can now also be worn under either chest carrier model (see the Inventory section for more details).
  
• Once any of the items above is equipped, soft armor is automatically "active" — there's no need to add or remove anything.

The Armor HUD is shown next to the Stance Indicator (if enabled), which defaults to the bottom-right corner of the screen:

Hard armor shows status of individual plates; soft armor shows icon only (helmet and/or vest).

💡 You can hide the Armor HUD in Setting › HUD › Character Status › Show Armor.

Here's what the armor status icons on the HUD mean:

• White means the piece of armor is intact.
  
• Yellow + crack means the armor is damaged, but still functional.
  
• Red + diagonal line means the armor has been depleted.
  
• For hard armor, each icon has a letter corresponding to a plate: F (front/chest), B (back), L (left side) and R (right side).

A related feature introduced in V1.0 is hit reactions. Being shot will now cause your character to flinch, possibly throwing off your aim — an extra reason to make sure you see the enemy first.

The following door system updates have been implemented for V1.0, focusing on responsiveness, realism, and new breach mechanics:

• Added locked-door support with breach options: explosive charges or shooting the handle.
  
• Set up improved simulated physics for doors, allowing them to react when pushed by characters.
  
• Added reach-out animation when interacting with doors.
  
• Improved online reliability (responsiveness and replication across clients).

The M67 Frag grenade has had its damage zone adjusted:

• Characters caught within a radius of 5 meters from the explosion (with no obstruction) will be instantly killed.
  
• Beyond 5 meters, lethality drops progressively.
  
• The maximum effective radius is 15 m.

💥 Related: the M84 Flashbang no longer affects players/characters through walls.

This build introduces a full overhaul of player movement and weapon handling, as detailed below:

• Completely overhauled player movement set using new motion capture data. Replaced all standing and crouched movement animations, including walking, jogging, sprinting, and strafing.
  
• Running (default <code>Shift</code>) now features a more stable stride animation for improved room clearing feel and visual quality.
  
• Retuned movement speeds across all stances.
  
• Reworked weapon handling with more natural movement wobble and aiming sway patterns, replacing the stiffer system present in V1035.
  
• Countless animations for player interactions, cutscenes and menus were created or updated.

Extraction is a new PvE hostage rescue-esque game mode now available for solo and co-op play. Here are the rules:

• Players assume the role of a rescue team (or solo rescuer), with enemy AI holding a friendly hostage.
  
• Hostage is guarded by 2 captor AI units whose sole purpose is to monitor the prisoner.
  
• Captors become agitated when witnessing or hearing combat, causing their morale meter to deplete (does not refill). Full depletion triggers execution!
  
• Hostage interaction is handled via the Command Menu (default <code>K</code>): free and lead with "Follow Me" prompt. The hostage will mirror player speed and stance while following.
  
• "Move To" commands cause the hostage to run to the designated position; "Take Cover" sends them to the nearest viable cover to crouch and hold.
  
• In co-op, the hostage responds to the last player who interacted with them, allowing for quick handoffs during contact.
  
• Enemy count per map is set to a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 30 for balancing and to allow headroom for future civilian and hostage AI expansions.
  
• Future expansion planned: maximum number of hostages per map will be increased.

💡 Extraction is currently playable on Airbase, Compound, Hospital, Small Town and Tanker.

Sound updates focus on foley, dialogue, and footstep volume increases, plus general bug fixes and a new finalized audio mix:

• New Audio Mix setting: Headphones (calmer mix, optimized for headphone users). This replaces the "Experimental" setting. Change it in Settings › Audio.
  
• Set footsteps and foley higher in the mix to address player feedback regarding difficulty hearing enemy movements. Also increased attenuation for these sounds.
  
• Adjusted weapon and character foley based on character gear weight.
  
• Added quick mission-specific dialogue from team handler "Forge" (e.g. mission-start dialogue when playing Intel Retrieval, Defuse etc.).
  
• Various general bug fixes across audio systems (majority of remaining work outside mission-specific dialogue).

New customization options for your character's appearance are now available. Here are all the additions and changes:

• [NEW] Cornrows — Tight parallel braids along the scalp, tied up in a back bun.

• [NEW] Long B — A mid-length cut with wavy texture.
  
• [NEW] Side Part — A classic side-part cut with trim sides.
  
• [NEW] Slick Back — Long hair slicked back at the top with skin-faded sides.

💡 Hairstyle "Long Cut" (Male 01, 02, 04, 05 and 06) was renamed to Long A.

💡 Hairstyle "Long Cut" (Male 03) was reassigned as Caesar Cut.

• [NEW] Circle Beard — A trimmed beard where the mustache connects with the chin hair.
  
• [NEW] Full Beard — A full, long beard the likes of which would make various fantasy characters jealous.
  
• [NEW] Goatee — Hair on the chin only.
  
• [NEW] Mustache — Just a 'stache. Is it classy? Is it creepy? Nobody knows.

💡 "Short Beard" was renamed to Stubble.

The inventory has been updated with plenty of new firearms, weapon attachments, gear and outfit items. Man, customizing feels good.

PRIMARY WEAPONS

• [NEW Shotguns] M500 & M500 Tactical — Two configurations of the classic M500 pump-action shotgun. The "factory" M500 holds 5+1 rounds. The Tactical variant holds 7+1 rounds and is fitted with a top accessory rail for mounting optics, combat sights, and tactical furniture.
  
• [NEW Assault Rifle] AK-74 — Very similar to (and an earlier version of) the AK-74M already in the game, but with "plum" polymer furniture and other small design differences.

• [NEW Assault Rifles] AKS-74 & AKS-74 (Poly) — These AK-74 variants use a side-folding metal stock. The (Poly) variant is fitted with polymer furniture instead of wood.

• [NEW Machine Guns] RPK & RPK-74 — These Soviet automatic rifles are essentially heavier, longer, and higher-capacity AK rifles chambered in 7.62×39 mm and 5.45×39 mm, respectively. They have slightly higher muzzle velocities than regular AK rifles. Magazine capacity is 40 (RPK) and 45 (RPK-74) rounds.

SECONDARY WEAPONS

• [NEW Pistol] MK3 — This integrally suppressed handgun fires .22 LR rounds from a 10-round magazine. Though underpowered, it is the quietest weapon in the arsenal and a very efficient weapon for taking out sentries in controlled situations.

• [NEW Sight › Scope] AN/PVS-17C MNS — A standalone night vision scope that offers 4.5X magnification and a red dot aim point for quick target acquisition. MNS stands for Miniature Night Sight.
  
• [NEW Magazine/Pouch] RPK 40rd [7.62×39MM] — The default RPK magazine holds 40 rounds and is also compatible with all 7.62 mm AK variants.
  
• [NEW Magazine/Pouch] RPK-74 45rd [5.45×39MM] — The default RPK-74 magazine holds 45 rounds and is also compatible with all 5.45 mm AK variants.
  
• [NEW Magazine/Pouch] AK-74 30rd [5.45×39MM] (Plum) — Similar to the AK-74 30rd [5.45×39MM] (Poly) in shape and material, this one is painted in a plum color and equipped by default on the AK-74. It is available for all 5.45×39 mm weapons.
  
• [NEW Magazine/Pouch] MK3 10rd [.22 LR] — The default magazine for the new MK3 pistol. Hold 10 rounds of .22 LR ammunition.
  
• [NEW Rails & Mounts] Rail Panel B — This panel comes in 3 sizes (Long/Medium/Short) and will cover accessory rails in a similar fashion as the old Rail Panel (now renamed "Rail Panel A"). Comes in Black and FDE skins.
  
• [NEW Grips & Support] Vertical Grip A — The most ubiquitous vertical foregrips in US service is finally in GB and available in Black, FDE, Olive Drab and Tan. Its place of honor under the Vertical Grip A tag means we had to rearrange the names of the other two Vertical Grip (now B and C) attachments.

Rail Panel B and Vertical Grip A on the HK416 CQB.

• You can now equip the chest rigs with soft armor underneath. These combos go by Chest Rig (JAC/Armor) and Chest Rig (MCR/Armor).
  
• [NEW Holster] Leg Shroud — A single-strap + shroud solution for your holster, this "drop-leg" setup allows the sidearm to be worn lower on the hip.

💡 Platform "Bulletproof Vest" was renamed to Body Armor.

💡 The old "Holster" item was renamed to Belt Mount.

• [NEW Mask] Neck Gaiter — This item covers the operator from the neck to the nose. It is available in the same skins as the one-hole balaclavas.
  
• [NEW Gloves] Fingerless Gloves — Just some cool-looking military gloves that only go up to the first knuckle of each finger. Available in Black, Coyote Brown, Olive Drab and OCP skins.
  
• [NEW Tops] Rugby Shirt & Rugby Shirt (Tucked) — These breathable shirts were inspired by sportwears and adapted for military use; these have velcro on the shoulders to equip Patches. Available in OCP as well as various solid color skins including Navy and Red for the PvP-oriented.
  
• [NEW Footwear] Running Shoes — These civilian sneakers are available in Blue and Gray skins.
  
• All pants models have received a variant with external kneepads — look for Jeans (Pads), Tactical Pants (Pads) etc.

Rugby Shirt (Tucked), Fingerless Gloves, Leg Shroud, Combat Pants (Pads) and Running Shoes all displayed.

💡 The mesh (model geometry) for the female Jeans has been updated with a better fit.

Several maps have been added, remade from scratch, overhauled and otherwise updated for both visuals (art) and gameplay (level design).

• [NEW] Border — Set at (and around) a bridge checkpoint on the US–Mexico border, Border is a pure urban hellscape filled with alleys, derelict homes and commerce, a dirty canal, a small junkyard, a partially demolished road bridge, a deactivated multi-story public telecom building — which now serves as an outpost for the cartel that controls the severely impoverished Mexican town — and a lot of abandoned vehicles. As you might expect, Border will share a future hotspot with Ranch.
  › Includes playable sub-map variants Bridge, Checkpoint, Construction and Telecom.

• [NEW] Outpost — Set in the mountains of northwest Pakistan, Outpost is built around an old fort perched on a ridge right along the Afghan border. Inside the stone walls you’ll find interconnected buildings, plenty of vantage points and tight passageways. Outside them, rugged terrain and sparse shrubs are about all the cover you’ll get crossing a large, exposed perimeter. For now, Outpost is only playable in Operation Gilded Arrow (available in Operations mode after finishing Operation Onyx Flame).

• [NEW/REMAKE] Airbase — Set in Libya and sharing a future hotspot with Power Station, Airbase is a full remake of John's classic 747 map. It still portrays a small airport in the desert, but has had its boundaries slightly expanded and a considerable amount of infrastructure added to fit with our campaign mission’s story. These include a control tower, hangars, hardened aircraft shelters (HAS) and several other points of interest.

• [NEW/REMAKE] Hospital — A complete remake of Run Down, this update was all about improving the close-quarters battle experience while giving players a more organic and intuitive structure to fight through. Among many other changes, the exterior areas have been opened up a bit to create more space and angles from which players can approach the central building — which has itself been transformed from an abandoned school into a deactivated hospital.
  › Includes playable sub-map variants Barracks, Clinic and Garage.

• [OVERHAUL] Creek — Set in the American south, Creek is a fortified militia camp rebuilt for both PvP and quick PvE missions only. The rework raises the mine entrance to a level plateau, rearranges buildings for clearer footprints, improves pathways for navigation, and replaces the large ruins with European-style structures that better fit the abandoned-settlement aesthetic. Now located west of a road with patrol cars blocking the north and south ends, players will be free to come up with their own lore.
  
• [LEVEL DESIGN] Tanker — A helipad is now located in the middle of the compressors area (popularly known as the "valley").
  
• [LEVEL DESIGN] Small Town — Added cover on approach routes from spawn points and reworked some of the buildings' structures (particularly rooftops and canopies).
  
• [LEVEL DESIGN] Rig — Reworked the ballast interiors and added signage of various types to aid navigation.
  
• [LEVEL DESIGN] The Farm — Now home to the new Ready Room and a living quarters area above it. These are located inside the large hangar east of the Shoothouse hangar. Exteriors have also been expanded slightly.

• [ART] Compound — Improved lighting and vista visuals.
  
• [ART] Storage Facility — Added foliage improvements, plus lighting and atmospherics updates.
  
• [ART] Depot — Added foliage improvements, plus lighting and atmospherics updates.
  
• [ART] Tanker — Exterior received a lighting pass.
  
• [ART] Small Town — Updated lighting and atmospherics.
  
• [ART] Docks — Enhanced lighting, atmospherics, and vista visuals; improved ocean rendering and particle effects.

• The MENA and Western PMC enemy factions have received entirely new art assets to better match the visual quality of rest of the game, as well as to tie the factions together with the storylines.

💡 The names, motives and goals of each faction will be fully revealed in the campaign over the next few releases!

• All playable characters have received tweaks to their gaze (to tone down the wide-eyed effect) and an upgrade to the rendering of skin and hair, with unique hair colors being attributed to each operator.
  
• Player gear and outfit assets have all had their brightness levels adjusted (generally towards darker) to better match the environment and other assets. (Various weapons and attachments have received a similar treatment.)

The following general bug fixes and stability improvements have been implemented:

• We've updated the character collision capsule to prevent the camera from clipping into things.
  
• Fixed flying ragdoll behavior when characters are killed. We do realize the John Woo enthusiasts among the community might consider this a downgrade.
  
• Corrected replication scaling for VFX (gun smoke, spent casings) in PiP scopes, also resolving oversized 2D textures appearing in the sky.
  
• Resolved VOIP crash that previously caused complete audio loss for players.
  
• Cleaned up all invalid spawns — for both players and enemy units — across all missions following the migration to C++.
  
• Fixed issues with rounds not successfully starting in online sessions.
  
• Flashbangs no longer blind or deafen through walls.
  
• The infamous weapon shake that would sometimes kick off after sprinting or crouching for extended periods has been addressed.

• We've updated the game's credits to account for all current and past collaborators and their contributions to GROUND BRANCH. Thank you all!

These are some issues that weren't identified in time for a fix. We'll be addressing them ASAP.

• Players may hear the wrong voice line play for success/defeat per team.
  
• The hostage on Extraction may have difficulty traveling in a few places on Tanker. We're working to address these nav path issues, but for now, if they ever get stuck you can re-route to a new pathway.
  
• The hostage on Extraction may slow down when following the player. This is most prevalent when multiple players have interacted with the hostage. We're working on splitting out their behavior logic to account for every interaction.
  
• There are some animation issues we're working on with the player weapon handling and locomotion.
  
• We're working on fixing issues with the head collision capsule to prevent players from still being able to see through walls in some edge-case scenarios.
  
• We are aware of an extremely rare bug where a player joins an Operation that is in progress through a friend's Steam list and it can cause an invalid player count status during the death sequence.

… And that's a wrap on today's release notes!

Don't forget to check out Intel Report #032[www.groundbranch.com] (our most recent dev blog from a couple weeks ago) if you missed it or need a refresh — it details our currently planned releases and their tentative release date ranges, which are summarized here:

Dates are tentative, but we're on it.As always, we'd like to thank everyone in the GB community for their support and encouragement over the years  — we wouldn't have made it this far without you.

Alright, we're off to play a little GROUND BRANCH now. See you in there!

Hey everyone,

Welcome back to another Intel Report. We know it's been a minute, but the silence has been the sound of heads-down work. And this time we're not just pulling back the curtain on a few previews. We've got a lot to discuss about the future of GROUND BRANCH.

After years of development, and a whole lot of invaluable feedback from you, we're proud to announce that GROUND BRANCH V1.0 launches on July 16, 2026.

Yes, you read that right. We have a date.

This is the most significant milestone in the game's history. V1.0 officially replaces the "V1036" label and brings improvements across AI, environments, visuals, animations, inventory, player interaction and overall immersion on the strongest foundation GROUND BRANCH has ever stood on.

So before we get into the roadmap and what comes next, let's go over what you'll actually be deploying with on day one.

V1.0 is the culmination of everything we've been teasing across our Intel Reports[www.groundbranch.com], brought together into one release and polished for both solo and co-op play. Here's the rundown on the latest developments since Intel Report #031[www.groundbranch.com], plus some important highlights.

Many of you will remember Operations, the campaign structure we first demoed back in V1034. It was pulled temporarily for some much-needed retooling, and it's making its return for V1.0. This isn't a simple re-release of the "Silent Reach" demo, however. We're introducing the Prologue, set in the new Northwest Pakistan hotspot, where you'll play two new missions set two years before the main events of the campaign — a gentle on-ramp into the Operations gameplay loop.

The bigger shift: the story is now a central focus. Where the original vision had standalone hotspots with little connective tissue, we've put serious time into building a real narrative — a proper storyline with grounded characters and situations. We brought writer Scott Hamm aboard to set the stage and key characters, while our own Travis Rose continues to unfold the plot and develop the factions and operations.

💡 The Prologue also introduces a character who'll play a role in events further down the campaign.

💡 Expect the return of full briefings — this time with voice-overs — plus persistent progression.

For now, Operations will be available in lone-wolf and co-op only, with a proper friendly-AI system planned for Chapter 1 (more on chapters soon). As we keep refining the core mechanics, we'll circle back and bring these early missions up to their best.

A brand-new environment is almost done, and it's the setting for the second mission of our Prologue: Outpost.

Set in the mountains of northwest Pakistan, Outpost is built around an old fort perched on a ridge right along the Afghan border. Inside the stone walls you'll find interconnected buildings, plenty of vantage points and tight passageways. Outside them, rugged terrain and sparse shrubs are about all the cover you'll get crossing a large, exposed perimeter.

Outpost joins Airbase (747 remake), Hospital (Rundown remake), Border and Creek (overhaul) as the additions for V1.0's map selection.

The mountain overlooks a town from an earlier mission — and you can spot recent events playing out in the distance.

💡 Expect high-wind audio ambience that can mask your footsteps — and very lethal, long sightlines if you get caught in the open.

💡 At launch, Outpost is tied to the second Prologue mission only. It won't be available in quick missions or other modes just yet, but broader access is of course planned for a post-launch update.

Our enemies have had substantial work done to their logic, and we continue to work under the hood to improve their overall decision making in combat. We've got Chris and Zachary locked in a room with the behavior trees working on the following:

• Aim point now depends on skill level and visibility: By default, AI aim for the pelvis bone. However, if the body is behind cover and only the head is visible, the AI will switch to targeting the head instead of losing the target entirely. Higher skilled AI will aim for the chest or head by default.
  
• Perception range and reaction speed have been adjusted: Maximum view distance increased from 100 meters to 200 meters. The rate at which the AI's alertness builds has also been tweaked so that AI will avoid the old scenario of staring at a player and not reacting.
  
• Suppression and damage response: The AI now react to being shot in an unaware state. Being hit sets a suppression value and location, causing flee behavior to trigger even when the AI cannot see or hear the attacker. This means if you miss that lethal shot the chances of the AI running to cover before you can finish the job.
  
• Defender AI behavior added: Enemies in guard mode are now "defenders" tethered to their assigned guard point. They cannot move outside a set radius but will turn toward sounds, allowing them to hear you approaching and respond rather than standing frozen with their back turned. On maps like Hospital (formerly Rundown), this means enemies hold their rooms and avoid lining up like a train to their death.
  
• Guard point logic improved: AI now claim only one guard point at a time. If all guard points in a group are taken, remaining AI idle gracefully. Guard points are released whenever the AI changes state.
  
• Morale and death awareness systems added: When AI witness another enemy die, they experience suppression and a morale drop. This means your combat actions have more of an effect on the overall enemy's decision trees.
  
• Retreat and flee behavior now depends on skill level: Higher-skilled AI stay in cover longer before breaking away from contact. Overall, enemies feel more resilient.
  
• Under the hood: Behavior tree nodes are being moved from Blueprint to C++ for better performance and reliability.

Take a look at this quick demo on the overhauled Creek against enemies on "Trained" difficulty (hit reactions and the armor system are also visible):

💡 As mentioned in previous reports, all our enemy factions will also feature entirely new models and textures, as well as native-language voice lines.

In our last blog, we introduced the new quick mission Extraction, our PvE counterpart to the Hostage Rescue multiplayer mode. This week we'd like to go into more detail on how this mode plays, how it will be worked on in the future, and the underlying changes to AI to make some features also apply to HVTs (high-value targets) in our campaign.

In Extraction, players take on the role of the rescue team while the enemy AI hold onto a friendly hostage. The hostage is guarded by 2 captors — enemy AI whose sole purpose is to keep tabs on the prisoner. As the captor witnesses and hears combat, they will become agitated, depleting their morale meter as they go on. This meter does not refill and, if fully depleted, will result in an execution. (A demo of this behavior was previewed in Intel Report #031[www.groundbranch.com].)

💡 The maximum number of hostages per map will be expanded in the future.

Interacting with the hostage is currently handled through our command wheel: to free and begin leading them, simply follow the interaction prompt. While being led with the "Follow Me" command, the hostage will mirror the player's speed and stance. When ordered to "Move To" they will always run to the position, while ordering them to "Take Cover" will send them to the nearest viable cover to crouch and hold. In co-op scenarios, the hostage will respect the last player to interact with them, allowing players to quickly take control in a situation where you end up in contact with the enemy.

Extraction has some changes from our other quick missions that are important to note. For one, the amount of enemies on the map has to be a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 30. This is for balancing purposes and gives us headroom in the future for civilian and hostage AI expansions.

We hope you look forward to giving it a try and sharing your feedback come release!

CQB is the heart of GROUND BRANCH, and V1.0 brings a smoother, more responsive door system without giving up an ounce of the realism you expect.

As covered last report, doors are getting locked-door support and the ability to breach them open with explosive charges or shots to the handle. Since then we've worked out a better door handling animation and set up simulated physics with the doors which will react to being pushed by characters.

Mike has been busy. We're completely overhauling the player movement set with fresh motion capture. Standing and crouched movement — walking, jogging, sprinting, strafing — is all being replaced, and the difference in fluidity is night and day. Take a look at these previews:

💡 Running (default Shift) now uses a more stable stride animation, allowing for dynamic room clearing that looks and feels much better.

We've retuned the speeds across every stance and reworked weapon handling to use more natural movement wobble and aiming sway patterns in place of the stiffer movement currently in V1035.

Returning in v1.0 is the moon phase feature that used to be part of our Advanced Time Menu. We've made it easier than ever to understand and control this system.

In quick missions you can now choose the moon phase directly from the Mission Parameters menu, giving you granular control of how bright or dark you want your nights to be.

💡 The moon now appropriately casts a shadow. Hiding in the shadows cast by the moon further conceals your position, making you nearly invisible to the enemy.

With a full moon, most of the map is illuminated — you are more exposed to the enemy in this state:

With a waxing crescent (below) or darker moon phases, you will be more concealed to the enemy, but your NVG will require an IR illuminator (available on the AN/PEQ-15 or similar modded attachment) to help illuminate dark spaces.

💡 We are currently experimenting with lowering the overall visibility of the enemy at night compared to previous versions. We hope this helps you feel like an extra spooky operator.

As previewed in our recent reports, lots of other updates are taking place in most areas of the game. To recap and add a few points:

• Several maps have had art updates to clean them up in preparation for release. One such map — Rig — has had some work done by Will. These include material and texture improvements, updates to the ballast tanks/leg interior, an optimization pass, adding railing covers, lighting and atmospherics, and adjusting the color palette to try and aid navigation.
  
• The new armor system will give players enhanced survivability at the expense of stamina and a further challenge in multiplayer encounters, while hit reactions add another layer of immersion and complexity to combat by making it more difficult to return fire if targeted first.
  
• In the locker room, players will have access to new gear (rugby shirts, fingerless gloves, rig/armor combos, kneepads, drop-leg holster…), weapons (RPK, M500, MK3…), attachments (new rail panels, grips) and new character appearance options (new hair and beard styles) to add even more operator and loadout variety.
  
• A large number of textures and models have also been reworked for better visuals and lighting in our character and inventory assets.
  
• We've raised the overall volume and increased the attenuation of footsteps and player foley. We've set them to be higher in the mix for now to address player feedback that they find it too hard to hear the enemy's movements.
  
• As amusing as the flying ragdolls were, they've sadly been fixed. It was fun while it lasted.
  
• Replication of certain VFX like gun smoke and spent casings in PiP scopes will no longer render at a blown up scale on the maps. If you've ever seen a large 2D texture pop up in the sky and wondered "what was that?"… wonder no more!
  
• The VOIP crash which used to cause player's audio to complete disappear is resolved.
  
• We have gone through all our missions and cleaned up invalid enemy spawns from the great migration to C++.

Some of the map art updates displayed on RigThe new (or rather very old) AN/PVS-7 night vision systemHitting V1.0 does not mean the end of development.

V1.0 is the milestone that says GROUND BRANCH has fulfilled its core promise — a fully functional, stable, content-rich tactical shooter with a campaign framework and mod support. Hitting that mark doesn't close the book; it opens the next chapter. A great deal of what's coming next is already mapped out — and that's a roadmap of planned additions, not a list of things we're scrambling to finish.

GROUND BRANCH V1.0 is the start of a process that runs all the way through the rest of 2026 and into 2027. Here's where we're headed.

💡 Though we're working extra hard to meet this schedule, please note that these dates are tentative.

Launch. Everything above, plus the base for multiplayer.

Following launch, we'll roll out three new campaign chapters across updates V1.1.0, V1.1.1 and V1.1.2. Each chapter adds a new hotspot with 3–4 new missions, and every release keeps bringing new features, improvements and fixes alongside the story content.

💡 Every new hotspot also gets its own dedicated Ready Room, themed after the area.

After Chapter 3 lands with V1.1.2, we're planning a dedicated Multiplayer Update (V1.2.0) with a set of improvements, shipping alongside the new Mod Kit (SDK) updates for maps and missions.

💡 The Mod Kit will not be receiving updates until then.

That's the shape of it: continued, planned expansion  of our gameplay, campaign chapters, the multiplayer update and Mod Kit, ongoing AI work, more maps, weapons and gear, and steady quality-of-life passes. We'll have more detail to share on each of these in the months ahead.

GROUND BRANCH wouldn't be where it is without the dedication, feedback and support of this community. Every report, every discussion, every suggestion, every play session has helped shape the game into what it's about to become.

On behalf of the entire team — thank you for being on this journey with us.

We look forward to deploying with you on July 16. See you on the ground.

As always, thanks for keeping up with GROUND BRANCH. Stay safe, and have a great rest of your week!