Firebreak Gets Final Content Update and Lower Price Tag

Remedy released a major content update on March 17 for FBC: Firebreak, its cooperative shooter set in the Control universe. The update adds new locations, a friends’ pass, and provides some bittersweet news for FBC: Firebreak fans.

FBC: Firebreak is a 3-player, cooperative first-person shooter set within the Federal Bureau of Control’s ever-changing headquarters, the Oldest House. Players team up as members of the Firebreak unit, tasked with containing supernatural threats within the Oldest House, facing off against zombie-like creatures, living sticky note golems, and the Hiss. The core gameplay loop revolves around completing objectives with teammates, building loadouts, and adapting to changing conditions. Despite being set in the critically acclaimed world of Control and Alan Wake 2, the game has struggled to find a loyal player base. Remedy has also seen some recent leadership changes, which might not be entirely unrelated to FBC: Firebreak underperforming.

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FBC: Firebreak Gets its Final Content Update

On March 17, FBC: Firebreak developer Remedy announced that the game’s latest major content update, The Open House, is now available to players. It adds a set of Endless Shift arenas inspired by Control locations, reworking familiar parts of the Oldest House into combat arenas. The new maps include Cafeteria, Aircon Room, Ranger GQ, Turntable, and Ritual Lobby, all pulled from recognizable sectors found in Control. In addition to the new content, Remedy shared some bittersweet news that this will be the game’s final content update. While unfortunate, it isn’t exactly surprising. FBC: Firebreak has struggled with player counts for over six months.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

Alongside the new arenas, Remedy also introduced a friends’ pass that lets players invite others to their game sessions even if they don’t own FBC: Firebreak. It’s a smart move to ensure players will still be able to play the game even after new content ends. The developer also confirmed a permanent price drop, along with a 20% discount on Steam until the end of March.

Players can now pick up a copy of the base game for $19.99 and the deluxe edition for $29.99. On the gameplay side, the update focuses on improving progression systems and general user experience. How perks are equipped has been reworked, providing greater flexibility when build crafting. There are also a range of balance tweaks affecting various weapons, abilities, and encounters.

Upon launch, FBC: Firebreak initially drew an impressive number of players, but it experienced a sharp fall off in the following months. Players reported friction around tutorials and a repetitive gameplay loop that didn’t have long-term payoff. Players also indicated that the progression systems were lacking, providing few reasons to stick around once they had experienced most of what the game had to offer. However, with its final content update, The Open House, it at least shows that Remedy has tried to respond to some of those concerns, but now it seems those efforts are winding down.

Despite ending major content updates, Remedy confirmed that FBC: Firebreak isn’t going offline. In its Open House reveal, the developer said servers will remain active, allowing players to keep jumping into sessions. At a time when live-service games like Highguard seem to be shutting down in increasing numbers, it’s a nice change to see a developer commit to its game. The addition of a friends’ pass was directly intended to ensure the game wouldn’t be inaccessible to people still playing. Remedy also noted that smaller updates or fixes could be released on an as-needed basis. While the game may not be expanding further, it will continue to exist as a fully playable experience for those who still want to explore the secrets found within the Oldest House.

FBC: Firebreak Update 1.9.1 Patch Notes

Added Friend’s Pass

Players who own FBC: Firebreak can now invite friends using the free Friend’s Pass version (Free Trial on consoles) to join their sessions and experience the game together.

New Maps for Endless Shift

Added five new Endless Shift arenas inspired by locations from Control:
Cafeteria, Aircon Room, Ranger HQ, Turntable, and Ritual Lobby.

Gameplay Changes

Harmful Conditions

Harmful Conditions have been adjusted to make them clearer, less frustrating, and easier to manage during combat.
Burning, Glowing, and Shocked now linger on the player for a much shorter duration.
HUD indicators for all Conditions (Harmful and Beneficial) have been moved from the bottom corner of the screen to a more visible location.
Damage values for Harmful Conditions have been rebalanced, so they remain dangerous but easier to manage due to the shorter duration.
Glow buildup speed has been significantly reduced.

Leech Slime (Infestation)

Leech Slime is now treated as a proper Condition with its own HUD indicator.
The Condition now lingers significantly longer.
Water no longer removes Leech Slime.
Reminder: Being covered in slime protects players from Glowing. Slime is good for you!

Papered and Moldy Harmful Conditions (Paper Chase and Outbreak)

When these Harmful Conditions reach maximum intensity, the screen will now gradually fade to black.
This provides a clearer warning that the player must remove the Harmful Condition before it becomes fatal.

Pink Harmful Condition (Frequency Shift)

The Pink Harmful Condition has been made significantly more dangerous.
When affected, being hit by gunfire or melee attacks will trigger small explosions.
When the Harmful Condition reaches maximum intensity, it will detonate in a powerful explosion, damaging enemies and downing players.

Healing Changes

All water sources now restore a tiny amount of health, including sprinkler water.
Showers still remain the primary healing source.
The health bar now displays a more visible effect when the player is being healed.

Heat Conversion Gun Mod

Healing provided by the mod has been increased.
The mod now builds Fire status faster when used.
The effect of this mod doesn’t kill you as easily anymore, but players must still be careful when using it at low health and catching fire.

Hot Shot Perk

Now better indicates that the enemy killed by the Cold Harmful Condition transfers the heat as Burning to the enemies around it.

Asbestos Hands Perk

The perk has been updated so that pressing the wrong button during Emergency repairs still progresses the repair. (The in-game description still reflects the old functionality.)

Perk Equipping Overhaul

The Perk equipping system has been redesigned to simplify loadouts and allow more build flexibility.

Players can now equip only one instance of each perk.
Each perk automatically activates at the highest level the player has unlocked.

Example:

If you have unlocked Sprinting Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3, equipping the perk now automatically grants Level 3 and takes only one Mod slot.

Note: Because Level 3 Perks can resonate their effects to other players, up to 18 Perk effects can now be active simultaneously. The HUD can display only six of these effects at a time though.

Developer Note:

This is a significant change to how Perk builds work. Previously, players had to equip lower-tier versions of a perk in order to access higher-tier ones. This limited how many high-level perks could be active at once. With the new system, players can equip up to nine Level 3 perks simultaneously, enabling much stronger and more flexible builds. We’re looking forward to seeing the new combinations players come up with.

Weapon Balance

Heavy weapons (Rotary Cannon, Scattergun and Semi-automatic Rifle) were previously outperforming other weapon types, particularly on higher difficulty levels. We have rebalanced weapons and adjusted enemy scaling to create a more consistent experience across the arsenal.

Changes include:

Buffs to several underperforming weapons
Adjustments to enemy health, armor, and difficulty scaling
Improvements to grenade damage and utility, particularly Gunpowder grenades (it got a big buff, try it out!)

The goal is for all weapons to feel viable across all difficulty levels, while still maintaining their unique identities.

Quality-of-Life Improvements

Closest Neutralizer is now always marked in the HUD
Crawling speed while downed has been significantly increased
Revive time reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds

Gameplay

Fixed an issue where Hot Fix Recovery Objective heaters could set players on fire while appearing invisible.
Fixed an issue where players could not start certain Emergency minigames while holding a carriable object.
Fixed an issue where holding LMB or RMB prevented Emergency minigames from starting.
Fixed an issue where Blackrock grenades sometimes failed to destroy Corrupted Items.

Perks and Abilities

Fixed an issue where players could become unable to move and lose their character model after being revived by the Night Terrors perk while transforming into a Mold Walker or a Shuffler.
Fixed an issue where the Hunter Gatherer perk gathered ammo faster from broken stations than repaired ones.

Endless Shift Mode

Fixed an issue where equipped weapon skins did not carry over into Endless Shift sessions.
Fixed missing UI elements when players joined a Endless Shift session during the “Prepare for Wave” phase.

Equipment, Tools, and Altered Augments

Fixed an issue where the Teapot Augment timer stopped running when switching weapons.

Tutorial and Progression

Fixed an issue where task progress did not update when repairing the Gamma Emitter with the Wrench in the tutorial.

UI and Visual Fixes

Fixed an issue where placing Sprays on bullet holes could produce corrupted textures.
Fixed an issue where equipping augments caused the “Next Item” prompt and toolbelt highlight to disappear.

Menus and System

Fixed an issue where intro videos could not be skipped when booting up the game on PlayStation 5.
Fixed an issue where grenades were not centered in preview/inspect mode.

Achievements

Updated outdated description criteria for the Steam achievements “What a Day” and “OSHA Compliant.”
Corrected incorrect distance information in the description for the “Hands-Off Approach” achievement.

Cosmetics