Update "The Fundamental Protocol"

Operatives! The Agency has recently mapped the fundamental processes connecting all Harmonization Cycles and, with that insight, distilled them into a new, unified initiative: the Fundamental Protocol.

Rewards in this Protocol can be redeemed with Merits at any time, whether or not you’re currently participating in a Harmonization Cycle! Rewards include consumables, unique decorations, Credits, and Monolith Tokens — everything you need to accelerate your push toward establishing your new Personal Timeline.

Important Notes

• The Fundamental Protocol lets you spend earned Merits even if you’re not participating in any other Cycle.
• Access to it unlocks at Monolith access level DELTA. If you’ve already reached DELTA, access will be granted automatically.
• Your access to the Fundamental Protocol persists after you create a new Personal Timeline.
• Some rewards are exclusive to the Fundamental Protocol and therefore can only be obtained there.

Full List Of Changes And Improvements

This update also brings numerous improvements, including a new option to reduce camera sway while walking, adjustments to other effects that can cause motion sickness, fixed squad auto-fill, and many other additional changes!

Comfort and Camera Sway

• Added a setting to reduce walking camera sway.
• Weakened effects that caused motion sickness near portals: removed the distortion ripple beneath the extraction portal and around Active Matter clusters, removed view shaking during extraction, and halved the post-explosion double-vision effect.
• Fixed instances of image distortion from heat haze in optics.

Harmonization Cycles

• Added Cycle 0: "Fundamental Protocol".
• Fixed the discrepancy in Harmonization progress between players on different platforms.

Gameplay and Balance

• Increased Flowermen toughness, boosted aim disruption from their attacks, and made them turn in place smoothly instead of snapping.
• Added Dendroid spawns to the Headquarters, Cargo Port, and Dogorsk raids.
• Updated sensor-placement and monster-capture contracts to place the required items directly into your inventory on raid start.
• Updated Vehicle Transfer contracts to provide a fully operational vehicle; removed nearby repair kit and fuel canister spawns.
• Added the interruption of the item-placement mode for contracts when you leave the required zone to place them.
• Enabled ammo checks while running, sprinting is simply interrupted.
• Disabled vehicle control for drivers while they are healing, reloading, or loading items.

Weapons

• Fixed thermal scopes on high-recoil weapons cutting to black when your eye shifts away from the lens.
• Fixed a bug causing incorrect flamethrower canister fuel remaining text when moving it between weapon slots.

Interface

• Restored squad auto-fill for solo-queued players.
• Sorted Investigations by availability (Available, Completed, Locked), sorted the raid filter alphabetically, and updated the available-mission counter to respect the selected filter.
• Updated Tier 3 Chronogene messaging to show charge change as "previous value -> new value" instead of a simple "+1."
• Updated the "Create Body Sleeve" button in customization to explain how to obtain the Sleeve if access is still locked.
• Fixed a bug where the Contacts window appeared empty.

Controller

• Fixed the tooltip for the button to cancel actions.
• Fixed signal grenades in quick-access slots showing "button not assigned."
• Enabled the right stick, when in Inventory, to open the Missions window.
• Added a shortcut to the lighting-control radial (flashlight, weapon-mounted light, laser sight) in the action selection menu.
• Set the controller cursor to auto-focus the Claim Rewards button in the rewards window.

Shooting Range

• Fixed the glitch/censorship movement effects on the Shy Girl’s model persisting after switching targets.
• Fixed Seeds so they spawn/move correctly and can be hit.

Sound

• Made the Seeds’ buzzing noise start immediately upon activation instead of ramping up over time.
• Enabled stream-safe mode for the track "Night Call"; it no longer triggers copyright warnings on streaming platforms.

Graphics

• Fixed an optics projection issue that caused lens shadows to render incorrectly.