Stranded: Alien Dawn just released its newest free content update. The Jungle update delivers many new features, including a new region called the Saltu Region, which is a jungle biome that brings new items, creatures, and even diseases into the mix.

The Saltu is unlike other regions we have seen. As it brings us lush foliage, muddy areas, exotic new plants, and weather patterns that we don’t see in the other environments in the game. The update brings in 11 new plants, such as the palm tree, the purple leaf, the dandelion tree, etc. Once you have inspected each plant, you can learn about the new flora and how to make new materials to craft with, along with new food items to cook up and keep your survivors busy.

One thing Jungles are known for and why plants are so plentiful in them is the hot and humid environment, and with these thriving new plants also comes another thing that does well in the hot environments of jungles: viruses. These new Viruses can affect both plants and Survivors, such as the strange xenophore Flora blight, which is an aggressive form of fungal spores that can drift into your colony and infect your crops, and if you’re not able to take care of the infection quickly, you could lose your entire harvest. Now speaking of the viruses that can infect your survivors, they are the dangerous Swarm Fever, Gut worms, Blood infections, and others.

As the hot and humid environment allows plants and viruses to thrive, it also takes its toll, as it will increase the decomposition rate of more perishable resources and cause devices such as your air conditioner to consume more power as they have to fight off the smothering heat.

But alas, to help you survive this new region, comes a new Survivor – Melody Adeyemi. She is a former expert in Naturopathic medicine, and her dedication to her healing craft makes sure that she never fails at any healing tasks and will do her best to make sure that the colony stays healthy. She also has a natural leadership trait that will help to inspire your survivors to be the best they can be.

To keep your survivors healthy and fit in the environment, there are also some new leisure items to not only improve their moods, but also enhance their abilities. Such as the bench press, burn off some anger at the gym while helping them gain some physical strength. While the new VR unit will boost different skills based on what game they play.

As your survivors thrive, you might want to branch off and build smaller settlements around the planet, which was nearly impossible before as you would have survivors running all over the place, but now there are the new Area Flags that will allow you to designate work areas that your survivors will stay within to complete their tasks, and they will only interact with objects and devices within their allowed zones. Of course, you will have to research and unlock the new Camp Management research to use these flags.

A new Survivor tool has also been developed to assist with the new challenges you may face. Some of these items are The Survival kit, a small bundle you can take with you that has a small supply of emergency rations, and a bedroll to keep your survivors comfortable on their long treks away from camp. Another such tool is the Harvesting tool, which will reduce the amount of time it takes to harvest crops, cut down trees, and even mine stone. A respirator mask will assist you when you might have to venture outside in the often-dangerous times of Toxic Ash or even dust storms. And signal flares that will allow you to illuminate an area to assist in fending off swarms of beasties that can descend upon you in the evening hours, allowing you to target the invaders more accurately. Other new toys you can play with are the Night vision goggles and grenades that go boom!

And one of the last but not the least of the features is the new Photo mode, which will allow you to pause the game, freely place a camera, and adjust different settings and photo filters to take the best screenshots to tell your stories and share your exploits in the stunning new terrain.

There are many more behind-the-scenes improvements in the game as well, and it would take too long to list them all. But I am excited to see Stranded: Alien Dawn blossom into the beautiful young game we knew it was always destined to be.

Tell me what you think about the new update in the comments below.