Once Human April 8 Update Brings Tech Overhaul, Terraforming, and Stardust Crates

The Once Human servers are scheduled for maintenance on April 8, 2026 at 4:00 PM PT, and the downtime is expected to last around two hours. The actual time may shift, so players should plan their sessions accordingly. This is not a small hotfix by any stretch: the update size is roughly 28.98 GB on PC launchers, 442 MB on the PC client, 2.7 GB on Android, and 3.8 GB on iOS. Steam users should keep in mind that if the update is delayed, it may download more than once. A Wi-Fi connection is strongly recommended.

To thank Metas for their patience, the development team is handing out special maintenance rewards: Starchrom ×1,000, Mitsuko's Mark ×100, Stardust Secret Crate S12 - Epic ×1, and Stardust Secret Crate S12 - Rare ×3. After claiming the crates, players can open them from the backpack, and more crates can be earned through the new Battle Pass.

🧬 Tech System Overhaul: Exploration-Driven Progression

The Tech system has been completely rebuilt. The old level-based unlock method is heading out the door, replaced by a system that rewards players for actually getting out into Nalcott and exploring. The Tech tree now has four core branches: Survival, Production, Combat, and Building. Characters start with basic Tech unlocked by default, and future unlocks are no longer gated by character level or scenario phase.

There are three main ways to earn new Tech:

• Reverse Engineering: Collect facilities and items marked as cultural artifacts in the wilderness, then bring them back to the Synthesis Bench for reverse engineering. This can directly unlock crafting abilities or grant Tech Points.

• Tech Invention: Combine materials at the Synthesis Bench to run invention experiments. Success grants both the formula and the finished item, while failure still returns part of the materials.

• Tech Point Allocation: Spend Tech Points to manually unlock desired Tech. Tech Points can be earned by leveling up, repeating research, defeating Elite enemies, and more. Notably, Tech Points can no longer be obtained from exploring Mystical Crates, which cuts down on tedious crate grinding.

The original Tech Specialization system has been removed entirely. Its effects have been folded into Tech tree nodes, Tech enhancements, wilderness exploration, and the new facility enhancement system. To help players gain full crafting capability earlier, several mid-tier crafting facilities have been removed, including the Intermediate Supplies Workbench, Intermediate Weapon Bench, Small Synthesis Bench, and Intermediate Stove. Their formulas were merged into advanced facilities, and the unlock nodes for those advanced facilities were moved earlier.

Facility enhancements also received a major boost:

• Enhanced Electric Furnace now unlocks Sulfur Chemist, Petroleum Process, and Art of Stardust Decay.

• Custom Disassembly Bench combines all disassembly enhancement effects.

• Stardust Fusion Stove combines cooking-related enhancements, including Enhanced King of Cuisine and Permanent Save.

• Enhanced Supplies Workbench has improved effects and greatly reduced crafting time.

• Power Generation Facilities can now have their facility limit increased through Tech level and enhancements.

Some overly niche or balance-breaking specialization formulas were removed, but any specialization bonus facilities already built will remain.

⚙️ Tech Enhancement and Survival Balance Changes

Raising Tech level now grants enhancement points, which can be used to enhance specific Tech and unlock extra effects. Enhancement results are fixed and cannot be reset, but enhancement effects can be traded, encouraging Metas to swap useful discoveries with one another.

Body type and load mechanics have been clarified. Default Load is now set to 100, and body types affect characters as follows:

Gear is no longer restricted by character level, and more high-quality lost gear will appear in the wilderness. The starting weapon has also been changed to the Rustic Crossbow. Gear imported from Eternaland will now be automatically marked as lost gear, meaning it cannot be repaired, reverse engineered, or traded. The All-Purpose Hand will also be unable to repair lost gear inside a scenario.

Several crafting and resource systems were simplified:

• Gear can now be crafted directly from materials without prefabricated components, with new dedicated materials like Wood Weapon Body and Armor Lining.

• Rifles, submachine guns, and light machine guns now all use medium-caliber ammunition. Advanced ammo output has been greatly increased, while high-level enemy HP was slightly reduced to keep damage balanced.

• Tactical items were reworked, with repeated item types streamlined and the low, medium, and high tier split removed.

• Tin ore and aluminum ore will no longer spawn in the wilderness. Two new metal ingots can be obtained by processing iron. The Deviation The Digby Boy will no longer collect tin ore, and tin and aluminum ore have been removed from Mining Platform and Digger Biomechanical outputs.

• Gathering tool types were reduced, gathering range was adjusted, and high-tier tools became much more efficient when mining iron ore.

• All tiered materials have been merged into a single tier. Fabrics, parts, and plastics are now unified into simple categories: Fabric, Parts, and Plastic.

• Useless scrap was reduced and standardized as Normal rarity, allowing instant one-click disassembly at the Disassembly Bench.

New interactive scrap items also make exploration feel livelier: footballs can be thrown to stun enemies, books can be read to gain Tech Points, and rescue bots can help recover dropped items after death. The rewards and redeemable content of the Deviations Paper Doll, H37, and Wish Box were updated to match the new item categories.

Other adjustments include lower wild seed drop rates, automatic legacy item conversion, reduced Gazocchio durability, faster Energy and Hydration consumption while riding a bicycle, greatly increased Polluted Water output in Pollution Zones, and a new Sea Rabbit drop called Neurotoxin that can be used to craft tranquilizer needles.

🎁 Battle Pass S12 and the Stardust Secret Crate

Battle Pass S12 introduces the Stardust Secret Crate reward system, which includes a wide range of rare cosmetics and valuable item rewards. New Deviation skins are on the table, with a chance to obtain Legendary Deviation skins.

More than 50 cosmetic items are available for full personalization, and rare token rewards such as Lightforge Ingots, Lightforge Relics, Silver Keys, and Colorful Badges can drop at random. Rare Stardust Secret Crates can also drop practical rewards like Starchrom, Mod Dust, and rare items.

Stardust Secret Crates are divided into four rarities: Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic. Rare, Epic, and Legendary crates each have three upgrade chances when opened, and they may upgrade into a higher-rarity crate with even rarer rewards. Players can skip the upgrade animation without affecting the result.

Rare Stardust Secret Crates can only be obtained through active play and cannot be purchased in larger amounts. Higher-rarity crates do not drop any items related to supplies or stat progression, which keeps the playing field fair. Each season's crate includes its own limited items, and retired crates may return from time to time.

Daily Battle Pass Exp rewards give players a set number of chances to obtain Rare Stardust Secret Crates. From Monday to Thursday, players get 2 chances per day; from Friday to Sunday, they get 4 chances per day. These reset at 6:00 server time. Every 300 Battle Pass Exp earned lets players claim 1 Rare Stardust Secret Crate from the Battle Pass screen. Chances can stack up to 20, and once players have 9 or more available chances, double rewards activate, allowing 2 Rare Stardust Secret Crates for every 300 Battle Pass Exp. Chances are not cleared when a new Battle Pass begins, and any unclaimed crates will be sent later by mail.

The new Battle Pass theme is Serene Swordheart. The Advanced Edition includes the Epic fashion set Serene Swordheart, the Epic weapon skin Gleaming Fang - SKS, and the Rare furniture formula series Silver Sips. The Luxurious Edition is 10% off for a limited time and instantly grants 15 Battle Pass levels plus exclusive rewards like the Epic territory collectible Dubhe Screen and the Epic Cradle cosmetic Source Chamber.

🏝️ Eternaland Terraforming with Terrain Modifier

Eternaland finally lets players reshape the terrain itself. By purchasing the new Terrain Modifier from the Eternaland Shop and placing it in the hotbar, players can enter editing mode and transform the island's terrain in four ways:

• Create: Build land out of nothing, from scenic mountains to earthen bridges.

• Delete: Excavate terrain, clear away obstructive landforms, or create depressions.

• Flatten: Instantly flatten any area for a perfect building foundation.

• Recover: Restore terrain to its initial state after a mistake.

Water regions and areas near caves cannot be terraformed to protect the island's ecosystem. Mobile players should install the latest app version from the app store to ensure the feature works properly.

⚔️ Combat, RaidZone, and Quality-of-Life Tweaks

Gardeners receive a new class-exclusive formula unlocked by default: Gardening Shears. After crafting them at the crafting bench, keeping them in the backpack automatically doubles yield when gathering from trees and shrubs. The trade-off is that plant seeds will no longer drop while the shears are active.

The Shrapnel Grenade received a targeted balance adjustment for RaidZone. Explosion damage was lowered from 120 to 90, explosion radius was reduced from 5 meters to 3 meters, and the warning ring now matches the actual blast radius more accurately.

RaidZone territory security got a major quality-of-life upgrade with a new device desktop widget module. Players can place the RaidZone module directly on their phone or device home screen and monitor territory security in real time even when they are not in the game.

Other changes include underwater use of Electric Drills and Explosives, fixed Pollution Zone protection costs that no longer scale with the number of buildings, improved V guidance in Pollution Zones, and a Deviation fusion time adjusted to 5 minutes. On Custom Servers, the character deletion cooldown was reduced to 1 hour, and the starting Memetics Points cap was increased to 2,000,000.

🛍️ Returning Lightforge Crates, Shop Offers, and Fixes

The top three voted returning crates, Ethereal Tide, Abyssal Finale, and Arcane Celestial, are back as scheduled. Beach Bash and Echo Vesperine are also joining the return lineup. Players can choose up to three of the five Lightforge Loot Crates to participate in, with extra collection challenge rewards available. Returning collection progress can unlock crate-exclusive themes, namecards, and alternate-color Fashion sets. Ethereal Tide now includes a new rarity-exclusive trait called Afterveil, a high-speed burst effect.

The Cozy Nook furniture pack arrives on April 16 at 6:00 AM server time, with a 14% discount during the first week. The Phantom Light weapon skins for SOCR, HAMR, and MPS5 are available for two weeks only, with first-week draws costing 30 Crystgin each. The Rare Lightchaser fashion set is available for 480 Crystgin during its first week.

The guaranteed single recovery period for the Legendary Mod Selection Crate has been shortened to 7 days. Fashion Trait interface layout was improved, appearance preset switching no longer costs additional Chrysalis Tokens or Butterfly Dye, and the Devation Selection Crate description was clarified to avoid confusion. Several bugs were also fixed, including V's shadow projection display and missing transformed appearances for 3-star Green blueprints, which have now been added directly to the appearance system.

Data referenced from Newzoo helps contextualize how Once Human’s April 8, 2026 maintenance and hefty multi-platform patch sizes align with the realities of serving a cross-device live-service audience, where download friction and session planning can materially affect retention. With the update also introducing an exploration-driven Tech overhaul, S12’s Stardust Secret Crates, and Eternaland terraforming, the shift toward deeper progression and cosmetic reward loops reflects broader service-game patterns in which content cadence, convenience tweaks, and monetizable cosmetics are used to sustain engagement without directly warping competitive balance.