Fear the Wolves—Vostok Games' Stalker-inspired, Chernobyl-set battle royale—has launched a "massive" update that improves its map, and balances the behaviour of its wolves.
Live now, the Treasure Map update also adds new looting rules and mechanisms designed to encourage exploration. Secret stashes, for example, are now hidden in certain ruins and contain high-tier look. These can only be located via maps scattered throughout the wilderness.
"Some buildings are also now boarded up, requiring the fire axe to break down the door and gather the goods inside," explains this Steam Community post. "Waiting inside may be the new DMR SOK-94 sniper rifle, optimal at medium to long range."
The Treasure Map update makes a "full pass" on wolf behaviour and balancing, making them "far more dangerous" to players and offering a "true PvE challenge". In practice, this sees lone wolves sneaking up on players; while packs more aggressively protect their territories, and will more readily pursue fleeing players. Likewise, wolves now have more health. Yikes.
Developer Vostok says all of the above features alongside a host of quality of life improvements, bug fixes and "tweaks to weapon balance, shooting feeling, and the addition of rooftop helicopter extractions to make Fear the Wolves better than ever before."
Despite enjoying the dev's previous games, Chris said the Fear the Wolves beta was in rough shape but had a great endgame earlier this year. The game's SteamDB stats are less than convincing, but perhaps its Treasure Map update can turn things around for the Early Access battle royale.
Full patch notes for that can be read here.
