Dagger Directive Patch History

This is not a dump of every Steam news comma. It is the timeline that explains why Controls tells you to hit default, why Drones mention a 500-metre bubble, and why Workshop talks about a Unity package. For the finished feature list, read Version 1.0 first.

3 June 2025 — Early Access opens

Fifteen missions, three campaigns (Bering Sea, South Pacific, Eastern Europe), 25+ weapons, online co-op, drones, mines, grenades, day/night selection. The loop you play in 1.0 was already here. The roughness was the point of EA: input bugs, co-op ghosts, and a tutorial people called long.

Mid EA — drones become a system

Recon and explosive frames ship with hard limits (500 m range, 200 m altitude). Recon later gains a marker and a laser. AI vision on drones is reduced, then later combat AI is taught to take them more seriously. Saves and joins with drones out break and get patched. If your 1.0 session still ghosts a dead bird for a joiner, restart — that class of bug is why Co-op starts with a test, not a toast.

Mid EA — input and controllers

Keybind saves fail. Mouse-wheel zoom dies. Disconnecting a pad in the menu crashes the screen. Grey text is added for locks you cannot remap. Shift plus 1–6 becomes a second pouch chord. Console hotkeys are removed so they stop stealing keys. Almost every one of those notes ends with “reset to default.” That sentence is still the first fix on Controls.

0.9 era — custom maps and pads

Patch 0.9 language bundled custom maps, controller support, and AI updates. The Unity map package goes from beta weekends (Discord-gated) to a public Workshop column on the mission board. If you still have a private beta habit, drop it; 1.0 expects subscribe-and-play. Workshop is the current flow.

Weapon and magazine Workshop

Before 1.0, official posts already showed custom weapons and magazines (M1928 examples, extra STANAGs) with the projectile limit that still exists: no fantasy bullets, no custom tracers. Creators who want a new round were told to ask. That limit survived into the finished build.

0.9.01 — mapping hotfix

After 0.9.0, official notes listed three feedback piles. The one that still matters for pads is controller mapping. If a Deck or pad still feels cursed, reset to default once. Steam Deck is the handheld brief.

July 2026 — last 1.0 toys named

Developer notes named the remaining rails (M7, XM8, M2, MK19), two airstrikes (A-10 single 30 mm pass, AH-64 two-minute hover), working titles for the new missions, and a second set of 25 achievements. Airstrikes and Shadow Strike are the play pages.

13 August 2026 — Version 1.0

Shadow Strike (press: Global Ops), 20 missions, 54+ weapons, Workshop as a headline, controller and Deck language, AI pass, cosmetics, fifty achievements. Details live on the Version 1.0 page because that is a launch, not a Tuesday hotfix. As of 15 August 2026 there is no numbered post-1.0 patch in the Steam news we used.

How to read an old video after this timeline

If a creator says Workshop is coming, the clip is pre-0.9 or they did not update the title. If they say there is no controller support, they bounced in early EA. If they say you must unlock guns, they are playing a different genre. If they show the M32, they are in the 1.0 window. Use Getting Started for current onboarding, not a Next Fest demo recap.

What we will add next

Numbered post-1.0 notes, if they ship. Free Play and deeper tutorials, if they ship. We will not invent patch numbers. When a note changes a bind, a drone rule, or a theater, the matching guide will move, and this page will get a dated bullet.

Until that bullet exists, you are playing the 1.0 listed on Steam. Pack like it. Host like it. Reset binds like the 0.9 authors begged you to.