Profit earned on the final day of a Challenge Moon is recorded on leaderboards, though the developer notes that it’s more for providing a “shared experience” instead of inciting competition. They also have “no idea” about the types of moons generated but believe some will “surely be crazier than others” in the coming months. Those playing with mods are encouraged to disable them to receive the same Challenge Moon as other players.

Other features include tags for public lobbies, a new hallway type on factory maps, and changes to enemies, like reworked movement for the thumper, slightly increased speed for the bunker spider when it’s near death and more. Check out some of the patch notes below and full details here.

As for the future, the plan is to offer “lots” of new creatures and more map variety with Version 50, but it may take longer to release than Version 45. Stay tuned for more updates in the meantime.

Version 47 Notes

• Added replayable challenge moons:
  – These are weekly moons that use the same random seed for everyone, based off the current week using the UTC time zone. The profit you make at the end of the challenge day will be uploaded to a leaderboard so you can compare your efficiency to your friends.
  -The challenge moons also have randomly generated names, increased amounts of scrap, random starting credits, and other randomly tweaked properties.
  – The point of this is less for competition and more to give us all a shared experience. It will also give even the most seasoned employees a challenge; I have no idea what moons will be generated for the months to come, but some of them will surely be crazier than others.
  – If you’re using a modded client, turn off all mods to guarantee you get the same moon as everyone else.
  – Position of random lightning strikes, the destination of the inverse teleporter, contents of gift boxes, and the precise positions of scrap items are now deterministic and based off the random seed.
• Added the server tag feature for the public lobbies list. Type in a tag exactly to filter by servers that were created with that tag.
• Added a new type of hallway to the factory map type.

Changes to existing enemies:

• The thumper’s movement has been reworked so its animations and acceleration should be more consistent.
• The thumper speeds up slightly faster after being hit, but its turn speed drops off more reliably when it reaches high speed.
• The bunker spider now becomes slightly faster when it is almost dead.
• The bunker spider’s webs have a slightly larger collision radius.
• The forest giant is more likely to leave the ship alone after chasing a player near it.
• Slightly increased the audible range of the coilhead’s footsteps.
• Made nutcrackers able to move slightly while aiming. They only do this if they’ve fired at the same person several times
• Made the jester take longer to begin cranking

Added a new journal entry

• Modified the bunker spider file to patch some confusing continuity
• You can now take a small amount of damage when falling from a slightly lesser height.
• The height damage increases are intended to make verticality feel more important; for example I felt Titan’s return trips were too simple for its level of reward.

Other winners include Labyrinthine for the VR Game of the Year award, Red Dead Redemption 2 for the Labor of Love award, Hogwarts Legacy for the Best Game on Steam Deck award, Lethal Company for the Better With Friends award, Atomic Heart for the Outstanding Visual Style award, Starfield for the Most Innovative Gameplay award, Sifu for the Best Game You Suck At award, The Last of Us Part 1 for the Best Soundtrack award, and Dave the Diver for the Sit Back and Relax award.

Steam holds these awards on a yearly basis, having the voting coincide with its Winter Sale. The Steam Winter Sale 2023 is still going on, and games are available at discounted prices until January 4.

“While I was asleep Lethal Company passed 100,000 concurrent players,” said Zeekerss on X. “Unbelievable, thank you for playing. Releasing updates for this game will be very fun.”

Lethal Company was released back in October as an Early Access title on Steam. The game puts players in the shoes of scavengers, tasked with collecting scrap from abandoned facilities on moons to meet the quota presented by the mysterious Company. Players can earn money by successfully scavenging, and unlock the ability to travel to new moons that offer greater rewards at the risk of higher risks.

The game has been quite popular, sitting at more than 21,000 user reviews on Steam, averaging out to the game having an “Overwhelmingly Positive” reception. At the time of publishimg, the game has seen an all-time peak of 115,050 concurrent players, with 76,646 players playing right now.

While I was asleep Lethal Company passed 100,000 concurrent players. Unbelievable, thank you for playing. Releasing updates for this game will be very fun. pic.twitter.com/VYQgfve4hr

— Zeekerss (@ZeekerssRBLX) November 19, 2023