Saros is a phenomenal sci-fi shooter, and it currently stands as my favorite game of 2026. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to play it–or to play it again–then developer Housemarque has some good news. The new Zenith update is now available for free, adding a boss rush and difficulty options that should appeal to both newcomers and seasoned veterans.
First up, the boss rush. Dubbed “Overlord Rush,” the mode comes with its own dedicated leaderboards and tasks you with taking out a series of the game’s bosses. Rather than starting on the first boss and fighting uninterrupted to the very end, they’re divided into separate “sets” that each contain three fights. Overlord Rush is available via the Primary robot in the main hub area.
The new settings and difficulty modifiers, meanwhile, allow you to both reduce and increase the game’s challenge, customizing it to fit your preferences. The “Slow Game Speed” setting lets you slow down the entire game so you have more time to react to projectiles, and you can tweak exactly how much it slows down and even if you want it to turn on automatically when combat starts. An “Auto-fire” setting also eliminates the need to actually pull the trigger when you aim, which can be handy when you’re primarily focused on dodging incoming attacks. You can think of it almost like a Vampire Survivors-style tool.
Carcosan Modifiers were already in the game at launch, giving you the choice to make the game easier or harder–or a mix of both in different parts of the game–but a whole bunch more were added with Zenith. New Protection modifiers include a “Corruption Melee Enhancement,” as outlined on the PlayStation Blog, which gives your melee attacks more power if you acquire Corruption, which is typically not a good thing to have.
Trial Modifiers, meanwhile, make the game more challenging, and when combined with the new ultra-hard endgame Eclipse Layers, you’ll be able to put all your skills to the test.
Saros is available exclusively on PS5. In our Saros review, Richard Wakeling called it an “incredible game that does more than just refine what worked before.”
