The Empires of the Undergrowth March 2026 Publication goes into element about what you possibly can anticipate from the RTS’ Seashore Brawl Replace.
Developer Slug Disco had not too long ago launched a beta model of the replace to its insect colony RTS recreation, and in its e-newsletter, it notes it has had loads of suggestions from gamers for the complete launch.
However we’re getting nearer to a full launch, and it’s simply the tip of the iceberg for Empires of the Undergrowth in 2026. Whereas there’s plenty of data on the Seashore Brawl Replace, Slug Disco additionally particulars its different plans for the yr.
Let’s check out what’s new within the Seashore Brawl Replace.
Empires of the Undergrowth Seashore Brawl Replace Particulars
Sand Lizard
The sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) lives in a number of completely different biomes in a lot of mainland Europe. The intense, lime inexperienced patterning of the males is unmistakable. It feeds on all kinds of invertebrates – primarily beetles, spiders and flies – however as an opportunistic predator it can take what it may possibly discover. Within the case of Empires of the Undergrowth, which means ants and termites are on the menu!
Shore Crab
The shore crab (Carcinus maenas), also called the inexperienced crab, is a typical species of true crab that’s discovered round a lot of the coastal areas of northern Europe, and is invasive to a number of different components of the world. It feeds on worms, molluscs and carrion – and likes to bury itself within the sand at low tide, which is when they’re most frequently encountered out within the wild.
The shore crab additionally has a juvenile variant, which remains to be a comparatively giant creature however a a lot softer goal than the large one. These may be chosen as common spawns in customized video games.
Customized Map: Causeway
A causeway stretches between two areas of upper land, inaccessible to the creatures of this shallow space that’s closely flooded by the tide. Lizards, crabs and different denizens of the seashore reside right here, representing a roadblock to the dominance of your colony. They have to be subdued.
Causeway is the primary customized recreation map that may assist as much as six colonies – that’s 5 computer-controlled colonies and the participant’s one. It’s designed for a 3v3 battle, though, like all customized recreation maps, it may be performed in any configuration you like.
Additional Stage: Causeway – Chowder
Based mostly on Causeway, Chowder is a uniquely goopy-looking stage: I hope you want your seafood stew! On this variant of Causeway, the northern a part of the map is occupied by an enormous shore crab, nestled between the stays of a sardine that dominates the ornament there.
The target of the extent is to take out the shore crab, however issues aren’t fairly so simple right here – waves of smaller crabs will assault you at common intervals, and sand lizards guard vital sources to the east and west. Cautious planning and regarded development might be wanted to tackle the challenges and attain the ultimate aim of killing the overlord in a single last assault.
UI Replace & Controller Assist
Exterior of the brand new content material, by far the most important and most evident change on this replace might be to the consumer interface. Virtually each component of the UI has been fully redesigned or reworked not directly – from the menus, to the extent choice and the in-game panels.
Alongside the brand new UI is a whole rework of how the sport interacts with controllers/gamepads – each menu and recreation system now takes these into consideration and works with them natively, fairly than counting on a thumb-controlled cursor as with the earlier setup on Steam.
The e-newsletter additionally tells us that the Seashore Brawl Replace might be accessible to everybody as an alternative of being paid DLC. Adjustments in what DLC entails have given the developer cause to indicate a brand new Empires of the Undergrowth Roadmap.
Empires of the Undergrowth 2026 Roadmap
Right here’s what the developer has written in regards to the 2026 roadmap.
The Seashore Brawl Replace
This one is self-explanatory, nevertheless it’s first on the roadmap as a result of we anticipate it to graduate from the beta take a look at in very brief order. As soon as once more, thanks a lot to everybody who helps with the take a look at, and likewise to everybody who’s ready patiently for it!
Fixes & Balances
We undergo 3 distinct phases with testing – inner alpha, our closed focus group, then an non-obligatory beta. Though every of those assessments will get considerably greater than the earlier one, it’s inevitable that there’ll nonetheless be issues that we didn’t catch all through the testing interval as soon as we get issues out to everybody, and so there may be a while put aside for fixes and adjustments after the very fact.
I’d hazard a guess at these coming just a few weeks to a month or two post-release of the Seashore Brawl replace, relying on how a lot stuff we discover ourselves having to repair.
Soundtrack on Streaming
We’ve been working with our publishers Hooded Horse to get Empires of the Undergrowth’s soundtrack up on all the foremost music streaming companies for a while now, and we’re nearly able to go. So long as every part goes easily you’ll quickly be about to stream 4.1’s motion music whereas in your fourth set on the health club, or hearken to 1.2’s plucked strings as you spring clear cobwebs out of your lounge.
Additional Ranges
This cease on the roadmap has change into a wildcard, and that signifies that though we don’t have any extra particular additional ranges scheduled for launch proper at this second, that would effectively change for quite a lot of causes.
Maybe a dev sits upright in the course of the night time, struck by a sudden bolt of inspiration and spends the small hours crafting it, or maybe some prolonged time frame between updates warrants just a little additional one thing to chew on within the meantime. In both case, if additional ranges occur they’re more likely to arrive with little or no prior discover.
Customized Recreation Adjustments
There are a number of issues on the listing for customized video games that we’re slowly getting spherical to – a number of tweaks to the AI, balances to meals quantities, and a few high quality of life adjustments within the menus. As the sport’s content material grows this additionally provides additional issues to contemplate in customized video games, and so later within the yr (earlier than stage 6, or concurrent with it) we might be reviewing suggestions for customized video games usually.
Main DLC
That is the “mixed” DLC talked about earlier within the e-newsletter – because it turned clear to us that the one tentatively deliberate to be launched within the first half of this yr would work higher when mixed with work for what was a later DLC. We’ve been beneficiant to ourselves with the estimated timing within the new e-newsletter – from Q3 this yr to Q1 of subsequent, however as talked about above we do hope to not have to make use of the intense far finish of that window. Eventually, time will inform.
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