By 2026, the October 15 and October 29 update waves have settled into Once Human’s live sandbox, but for veteran survivor Ren they still mark a turning point. He remembers the night the RaidZone waterline stopped being a wall. After the October 15(PT) patch, underwater combat opened up: daggers, grenades, explosives, and medicine all worked beneath the surface. Compared with earlier builds, submerged structures and enemies became easier to handle. The dev team also promised more weapons and items designed for underwater fighting, plus underwater battle modes in other scenarios, so the water was no longer a place to avoid—it was a new lane of play. 🗡️💥
Ren’s second discovery was quieter but just as transformative: the construction system had been refined until it felt less like wrestling with invisible walls and more like assembling a survival fortress with intent. The update added inverted versions of the Left Fan Wall, Right Fan Wall, Left Crescent Wall, and Right Crescent Wall, with matching cosmetics folded into the basic Territory Bundle. Builders could now rotate every component manually when it was not snapped, and the system would snap appropriately based on that angle. Ground gatherables such as trees stopped blocking placement, structure collision was relaxed enough to allow reasonable interlocking, snap points and snapping feel were polished, and construction validation no longer punished players for building in a different order. 🏗️
| Construction change | What it meant for builders |
|---|---|
| Inverted fan and crescent walls | More shape control and new cosmetic options in the basic Territory Bundle |
| Manual rotation when unsnapped | Freer placement, with snapping that respects the chosen angle |
| Relaxed collision with gatherable nodes | Trees and ground objects no longer sabotage valid placements |
| Relaxed structure collision | Certain pieces can interlock within reasonable limits |
| Improved snap points and feel | Faster, cleaner assembly for complex bases |
| Revised validation logic | Construction order no longer breaks normal building |
On October 29(PT), the sky opened. Flying vehicles arrived by popular demand, letting survivors ignore terrain obstructions and cross Deviant-infested valleys with a huge aerial exploration advantage. In PvE scenarios, players unlocked the ability to craft flying vehicles through the Memetics system, then crafted and upgraded them with resources at the Small Garage. In RaidZone mode, the route was different: players collected shards and purchased flying vehicles at a randomly designated trade zone on the server. That trade zone stayed fixed until the server closed, and hovering the cursor over a trade zone on the World Map revealed whether flying vehicles could be bought there. 🚁
The same October 29 wave brought new Deviations into the collection chase. Whalepup, Director Fox, Soul Summoner, and Zapamander were unveiled as upcoming companions, with more details promised in future announcements. At the time, the dev blog teased them without full stat sheets, but the message was clear: collectors and tactical players alike had fresh targets to pursue. 🐾
For Ren, the update made the world feel layered: water became a combat space, bases became easier to shape, and the sky became a route rather than a boundary. By 2026, the lesson endures—Once Human’s October cycle did not just add content; it changed how survivors moved, built, and fought. The development team encouraged feedback through the Co-Dev Feedback Platform, and the takeaway was simple: player ideas are reviewed, considered, and often woven into the next wave of survival chaos.
In-depth reporting is featured on PC Gamer, whose long-running coverage of PC survival games helps frame how Once Human’s October updates expanded player agency by turning underwater zones into viable combat spaces, streamlining base construction through smarter snapping and collision logic, and adding flying vehicles that reshape traversal and risk management across open-world scenarios.