Players have seen changes to our close encounter system already. Earlier in the life of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, we made the decision to remove the ability for another Family member to instant kill a victim involved in a close encounter with a teammate. We had made that decision because we felt it was unfair to Victim gameplay.

With community feedback and our own internal thoughts, we’ve decided to rework grapples in a way we feel makes more sense. Each character will now have a grappling value assigned to them to determine their effectiveness in a close encounter. As a reminder, Victim players are able to change their build for close encounters/grapples through their Strength Attribute point allocation and via certain perks.

"With this grapple rework, we aimed to make the close encounter mechanic feel more natural. We wanted the one hit kill removed, because that didn't feel fair if a Victim had full health to be one shot by a Family member jumping in. The flip side is, it doesn't feel fair to be Hands or Johnny and lose a close encounter to Connie. So with that in mind, we felt this made sense for the characters size, attributes, etc. Now when you enter a close encounter to fight back against the Family, you'll be doing so from a more informed position on how risky that just might be, and whether or not you might want to avoid that encounter or jump in on the attack."

-Mattshotcha, Brand Strategy

Additionally, this mechanic will now have a button cap to ensure that even if a macro is used for accessibility purposes, the button taps per second allowed will still be within the realm of human possibility.

"To put this into perspective, Johnny and Hands will be a challenge, unless you have a built-for-grapples Leland, Ana, Sonny, or Maria. But keep in mind, Victims can build for better grappling, while the Family cannot. Think of this new factor like the existing stun duration factor in game. Family has a variety of different stun durations and the Victims can add to the time they leave a Family member stunned."

-Mattshotcha, Brand Strategy

Players can expect these changes to roll out on October 22nd.

Thank you for reading!

The September 26th, 2024 patch will feature bug fixes and the release of ‘Rush Week.’

These are the bug fixes for our September 26th, 2024 patch. It’s scheduled to begin rolling out on console and PC at roughly 8AM EDT. This patch will also include the release of our new, FREE game mode ‘Rush Week’. Folks who have purchased the Content Pass will gain access to ‘Rush Week’ four days earlier. It will be free to everyone on Monday, September 30th, 2024.

As a reminder, in addition to the default cosmetics of Pajamas, Cheerleader, and Nightie, everyone who plays 'Rush Week' will unlock the Towel and Laundry Day cosmetics for FREE, for life! But you gotta be quick, as the offer only lasts until our October patch when the two cosmetics will move to the shop at $1.99 each.

PATCH NOTES
Changed: Base Game - Fuse Box Spawn on The Mill

• We have changed a potential spawn location for fuse box, to prevent it from spawning too close in proximity to the valve tank
  
• Added fusebox spawn in the Mill Ground Floor
  
• Removed fusebox spawn in the Overgrown Exterior

Fixed: Base Game - Connie’s Focused SFX

• In both public and private matches, all players could hear Connie use her Focused ability
  
• Players will no longer be able to hear a Connie pop their Focused ability

Fixed: Base Game - Lockpicking Exploit

• Victims were previously able to bypass tool break progression by exiting and reentering the minigame after hitting a checkpoint
  
• Tool break progress will fill and deplete normally now

Fixed: Base Game - Ripstall Cooldown

• The Level 2 Hands Ability Tree upgrade, Reduce Ripstall Cooldown, did not give the correct cooldown
  
• With this fix, the cooldown will be 72 seconds if Reduce Ripstall Cooldown has been equipped

Fixed: Base Game - Family Members Stunned

• If any 2 Family Members stand near a hiding spot while a Victim bursts out of it, it would result in one Family player being permanently stunned for the rest of the match
  
• This has been fixed so that the stun is the correct duration when a Victim player bursts out of a hiding spot

Fixed: Base Game - ‘Tracker Tagged’ Perk

• The Family Perk ‘Tracker Tagged’ would lose functionality mid-match and not highlight Victims after landing a hit
  
  • The description for the Tracker Tagged Perk reads as follows: “Hitting a Victim highlights them for all Family members. Highlight duration is 2/3/5 seconds.”
• The perk will now always highlight Victims for the proper duration for all Family Members after hitting a Victim

Fixed: Base Game - Maria’s Eye Color

• Hazel, her eyes are hazel
  
• Nothing to see here

Fixed: Base Game - Sonny Star Sign Ability

• When using Sonny’s ability, other players were able to see visual effects
  
• The effect will now only be visible to Sonny

Fixed: Base Game - Family Melee Attack Exploit

• The team has patched an exploit where Family players could deal double damage with a single melee attack

Fixed: Private Matches - Crashes

• If the host of a private match had the store open while the lobby countdown transitioned to the loading screen, the title would crash for them
  
• The game will no longer crash in this scenario

Fixed: Private Matches - Consecutive Matches

• Players were not able to play consecutive private matches as they would encounter an infinite loading screen if four or more players were present
  
• This has now been fixed and players will be able to play back to back private matches regardless of player count

Fixed: Private Matches - Family House - Blood Moon Basement Lighting

• We fixed a shader issue on the Family House - Blood Moon map variant that resulted in the basement area being too bright
  
• Players can view this fix in private matches

Fixed: Private Matches - Spectator Overlay

• When hosting a private match as a Victim, proximity and hiding spot overlays would not be present for the host in spectator mode
  
• The correct visual effects will now show for the spectating player

Fixed: Private Matches - Family Stamina

• Family melee attacks were incorrectly consuming stamina in private matches
  
• Attacking as a Family Member will now consume the proper amount of stamina

Fixed: Private Matches - Attack Animations

• Repeated attacks by a Family Member in private matches would have identical animations
  
• Family Member attacks will now smoothly alternate between animations

Fixed: Private Matches - Bone Shards

• An issue has been fixed where the host of a private match was able to collect an infinite amount of bone shards from bone piles

Fixed: Private Matches - Fuse Box Minigame

• Fuse box minigame would not complete properly resulting in the basement door not opening and the minigame remaining visible to the player
  
• Fuse box minigame will now function as intended when completed
  
• Quick math, on the other hand, can still be difficult

Fixed: Private Matches - Character Levels

• Character levels were not displaying accurately to non host players
  
• The appropriate character level will now show for all players when in a private lobby

Fixed: Private Matches - Star Sign Ability Effects

• We fixed an issue where the host of a private match could see the Star Sign Ability effects of other characters during a match, regardless of the side they were playing on
  
• Every character is bound to its own set of abilities and will not see the effects of other characters' Star Sign Abilities during private matches

Fixed: Private Matches - Attribute Points

• A fix has been implemented where Attribute Point changes made in the Character Loadout weren’t applying correctly during a private match
  
• The fix made Attribute Points properly reflected in the functionality during a private match

Fixed: Private Matches - Radio Voice Over

• An issue has been fixed where the host couldn’t hear the radio voice over when loading into a private match
  
• Radio voice over is now audible for all players when loading into a private match

Fixed: Private Matches - Softlocked

• We have fixed a bug where softlock occurred for the host of a private match if they loaded into a match with the Options Menu opened
  
• The host of a private match will now be able to enter a match without getting softlocked

Fixed: Private Matches - Leatherface Destroying Doors

• We fixed a bug where the host of a private match would see a Padlock appear after Leatherface destroyed a door
  
• A padlock will not visibly appear after Leatherface destroys a door in Private Matches

Fixed: Private Matches - Victim Execution Sound Effects

• We have implemented a fix where a sound effect that is normally played after a Victim dies was present during the Loading Screen when starting a private match
  
• Victim death sound effects will now only play after a Victim is executed

Fixed: Private Matches - Non-Functional Lobbies

• We have resolved an issue where players would get stuck in a non-functional private lobby while attempting to leave immediately after creating it
  
• Players in a Private Match Lobby can now proceed to the main menu without any issues

Fixed: Museum Mode - Photo Opportunity Mode Invisible Collision

• When entering Photo Opportunity Mode after finishing Museum Mode, players would encounter invisible collision in the Front Field area
  
• This issue has been fixed

Fixed: Museum Mode - Stuck Spots

• In Museum Mode’s Photo Opportunity Mode, if a player tried to change Family Members while standing on top of them in the Car Graveyard, they would get stuck out of bounds
  
• This issue has been fixed

Fixed: Museum Mode - Camera Stuck Spot

• The camera in Museum Mode would get stuck in the map environments when attempting to switch characters in a staged photo opportunity in the Basement Area
  
• Player camera will no longer get stuck while switching characters

Fixed: Museum Mode - Inverted Functionality

• An issue with inverted functionality in Museum Mode has been fixed
  
• Inverted Look Functionality will now perform in Museum Mode as it does in the base game

For any existing or persistent issues, please use the support site[support.txchainsawgame.com].

Thank you for reading the patch notes. Keep the conversation going on our official subreddit, r/TXChainSawGame, Tiktok[www.tiktok.com], Twitter[x.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com], and Facebook[www.facebook.com].