v0.7.2 — Melee Weapon Rarity Tiers

Released February 16, 2026. A focused balance patch that adds rarity progression to melee weapons — bringing them in line with how firearms have always worked.

What's new

• Melee rarity tiers — Pal-fiber, Stone, Metal, Refined Metal, and Plasteel variants of every melee weapon, each with progressively better damage and durability.
• New schematic drops for melee variants from Investigator dungeons and raid bosses.
• Steam Debug Mod — modder-facing tooling; doesn't affect normal play.
• Fixes: building placement bugs, raid boss reset issues, Wine/Proton mod compatibility, Xbox One long-session performance.

Meta shift

Melee builds are viable again

Pre-patch, melee was strictly a "cap a fleeing wildlife Pal" tool. Players defaulted to firearms for any real fight. With Plasteel melee variants doing competitive DPS, hybrid melee + firearm loadouts are now the optimal solo build for non-raid content.

The math changed for raid prep

If you've been running the Endgame Checklist, the "Best Weapon" recommendations need refreshing. Plasteel melee variants outperform the Legendary Assault Rifle for sustained close-range bursts. They're worse for ranged sniping (obviously), so dual-wield.

Raid boss reset fixes matter

Pre-patch, certain raid bosses would reset mid-fight if the summoning altar was disturbed (often by your own Pals). The reset fix means your Defense Base Layout doesn't have to be perfectly walled — minor pathing collisions no longer reset progress.

Recommended adaptation

1. Craft a Plasteel melee variant before your next dungeon run. The difference is significant.
2. Reconfigure raid loadouts to include a melee slot. Most boss arenas have close-range phases where melee outdamages your rifle.
3. Don't bother with mod tooling unless you're actively modding — it's not a player-facing change.