Active Matter vs Night Runner

• Harpy Scout Drone: A highly advanced, deployable aerial drone. It is utilized to safely scout ahead, spot hidden anomalies, and track rival squads moving through the industrial ruins.
  UAV Gadget
• Syndicate Squadmates: The game allows for small co-op squads. Teammates can cover different angles, flank snipers, and secure your dropped loot if you are killed in action.
  Other Players

• 'Scrap-Hound' K9 Unit: Follows the squad into subterranean bunker dungeons, barking to detect concealed enemy ambushes and carrying emergency ammunition crates.
  Autonomous Robotic Quadruped
• Auto-Sentry Sentry Drone: Deploys automatically over carriage door breeches, firing suppressive kinetic darts to hold back climbing mutant hordes.
  Hovering Combat Automaton

• Active Matter: The core currency and progression item of the game. Harvested directly from glowing environmental clusters, dead mutants, or stolen from rival operatives.
• Replicator Recipes: Rare schematics found deep within cryptic science labs that permanently unlock the ability to craft advanced technological gear (like Scout Drones) back at the base.
• Prime Currency: A special, highly coveted currency earned by completing daily contracts. It does not reset and is used to purchase base upgrades, secure containers, and respawn beacons.

• Locomotive Engineering Blueprints: Locked in military railroad depot safes; unlocks specialized carriage construction modules and automated defenses.
• Audio Tape Diaries of the Eclipse: Found beside fallen survivors inside ruined signal towers; reveals the tragic history of the nightfall cataclysm.
• Enriched Uranium Fuel Rods: Scavenged from abandoned subterranean missile silos; permanently upgrades train maximum cruising velocity and external electrical arcs.

• Fractured Multiverse
• Time Loop
• Extraction Shooter
• Hardcore PvPvE
• Military Simulation
• Cosmic Horror
• Anomalies

• Post-Apocalyptic
• Co-op Horde Survival
• Extraction Shooter
• Dark Sci-Fi
• Armored Train Defense
• Zombie Mutants

• SV-98 Sniper Rifle: Precision Rifle
  A powerful, bolt-action Russian sniper rifle. It is absolutely crucial for securing long-range kills across open anomaly fields and locking down extraction points.
• SOK-94 Vepr Carbine: Semi-Automatic Rifle
  A highly versatile, hard-hitting civilian/military hybrid rifle. Easily modifiable with various scopes, making it the perfect budget weapon for mid-range engagements.
• Bouncer Brass Knuckles Knife: Melee Weapon
  A brutal personal backup weapon reserved for desperate, close-quarters encounters when ammunition runs dry or for executing silent takedowns.

• Vulcan-9 Motorized Sentry: Heavy Roof-Mounted Minigun
  High-caliber motorized rotary cannon mounted on carriage roofs to automatically track and lay down heavy suppressive fire against swarm waves.
• Trench-Buster 12G Shotgun: Drum-Fed Combat Shotgun
  Devastating close-quarters firearm firing heavy buckshot that violently dismembers mutated enemies boarding train wagons.
• UV-Pulse Arc Rifle: Experimental Directed Energy Weapon
  Fires concentrated beams of artificial ultraviolet light that cause mutated nocturnal flesh to ignite and combust upon impact.
• Ghost-Eye .50 BMG Sniper Rifle: Anti-Material Precision Rifle
  Long-range high-caliber rifle engineered to punch through armored bunker bulkheads and neutralize mutated behemoths from long distances.
• Pneumatic Cleaver-Spear: High-Pressure Hydraulic Melee Weapon
  Pneumatically-actuated titanium spear that impales charging mutants and discharges a high-pressure blast into their internal organs.

• Military Tactical Rigs: Realistic plate carriers and chest rigs that provide ballistic defense against rival operatives' gunfire and determine your total carrying capacity for magazines and medical gear.
• Secure Containers: The ultimate defensive item. A small, un-lootable pouch that guarantees any Active Matter or rare keys placed inside are kept even if your operative is killed in the raid.
• The Replicator System: While not wearable armor, this base function acts as your safety net, allowing you to use Active Matter to duplicate your favorite gear so a death in the zone isn't a permanent setback.

• Reinforced Vanguard Exoskeleton: Kinetic Armor +60%, Blunt Impact Resistance +45%, Sprint Speed -10%; heavy powered suit designed for frontline doorway defense.
• Night-Scout Shadow Rig: Detection Radius -40%, Stamina Recovery +35%, Jump Height +20%; lightweight synthetic stealth armor optimized for scavenging missions.
• Hazard-Biohazard Hazmat Suit: Toxic Acid Immunity +100%, Radiation Resistance +80%; sealed atmospheric suit required for exploring flooded reactor dungeons.

• Syndicate Tactical Gear: Grounded, realistic modern military apparel ranging from heavy combat vests to specialized camouflage designed to blend into the rusty Soviet environments.
• Gas Masks and Rebreathers: Essential headgear visually representing the hazardous, toxic nature of the quantum-unstable zones where normal atmosphere has broken down.

• Weathered Train Conductor Duster: Heavy wool duster coat reinforced with leather shoulder pauldrons, brass railway pins, and an insulated scarf.
• Tactical Ballistic Gasmask: Dual-canister filtration mask with illuminated red visor lenses and an integrated squad communication microphone.
• Insulated Alpine Combat Parka: Arctic camouflage thermal parka lined with synthetic fleece and tactical equipment webbings.

Progression revolves heavily around extraction survival and base management. At the core is the Syndicate Base, a safe hub where players use harvested Active Matter to utilize the 'Replicator'. This device pulls objects from other timelines, allowing players to craft and retrieve highly advanced military weapons, modifications, and drones. Character progression relies on accumulating wealth (Credits and Prime currency), expanding your Replicator queue, and upgrading your arsenal to survive increasingly dangerous PvPvE zones.

Progression integrates tactical squad roles with deep train workshop customization. Players select one of four core operative classes: the Engineer (specializing in train repair, deployable sentry turrets, and reinforcement reinforcement), the Vanguard (a heavy weapons specialist equipped with riot shields and devastating close-range shotguns), the Scout (an agile scavenger with tactical tracking darts, night-vision overcharge, and long-range DMRs), and the Medic (deploying stimm-injectors, portable UV light purifiers, and revives). Outside of character skill trees, the train serves as a mobile base: players collect scrap, titanium plates, and electrical components to upgrade carriage armor, mount roof-mounted autocannons, install automated medical bays, and enhance the train engine's top cruising speed.

Instead of a single continuous open world, Active Matter utilizes distinct, large-scale instanced maps that players deploy into via raids. These locations exist outside the normal boundaries of space and time. Maps include a massive island dominated by rusted Soviet industrial complexes, sprawling cryptic science labs where the active matter phenomenon was first studied, and torn fragments of African and North American landscapes seamlessly bleeding into one another. Environmental anomalies constantly threaten the player, randomly altering space topology and gravitational forces.

The game's dynamic world spans vast transcontinental rail lines divided into hazardous railway corridors and off-train exploration zones. Major regions include the Rust Belt Deadlands (an industrial wasteland of derailed freight cars, crumbling factories, and toxic slag basins), the Black Ridge Alpine Tunnel (a claustrophobic mountain pass infested with ceiling-crawling arachnid abominations and blocked by rockslides), the Submerged Metropolis of New Eden (a flooded cityscape where tracks run along crumbling highway viaducts and high-rise rooftops), and the Frozen Tunguska Crater (a frigid, snow-swept impact zone housing experimental deep-underground research bunkers and ancient anomalies).

• The NightRunner Armored Locomotive: Armored Heavy Steam-Diesel Hybrid Train
  The squad's mobile lifeline; a massive armored engine pulling customizable passenger, armory, and turret wagons across the dark wasteland.
• Motorized Scavenger Draisine: Light Railway Reconnaissance Handcar
  A high-speed auxiliary rail car used to scout ahead of the main locomotive, clear track obstacles, and disarm sabotaged rails.

• Active Matter Mutants: Mutated Survivors
  Former operatives and civilians who lost their humanity after prolonged exposure to Active Matter. They are highly aggressive and drop raw Active Matter when killed.
• Anomalous Flora / Objects: SCP-Inspired Entities
  Not traditional animals, but everyday objects—like a flowering bush or a rusty car—that have been mutated by the spatial distortions into deadly, living environmental traps.

• Nocturnal Night-Stalker: Mutated Quadruped Carnivore
  Hyper-agile blind predator that navigates through echolocation, leaping across carriage roofs to ambush solitary players.
• Gargoyle Leaper: Winged Abomination
  Airborne mutated monstrosity that swoops down on train open platforms to carry off exposed squad members.
• Chitinous Tunnel Crawler: Subterranean Insectoid Mutant
  Armored multi-legged crawler that burrows out of railroad ballast rocks and ruptures carriage floorboards.
• Bile-Spitter Larva: Acidic Bio-Construct
  Ranged hazard creature that sprays corrosive digestive fluids capable of eating through metal carriage plating.

• The Operative: Player Avatar
  A hardened mercenary trapped in a brutal time loop, fighting for survival and dominance in a fractured, anomalous multiverse.
• Ms. Second: AI Assistant
  An in-game artificial intelligence that manages your Syndicate Base operations, Replicator queues, and provides tactical updates regarding the quantum-unstable zones.
• Rival Syndicate Members: Enemy Players
  Other human players pulled from different timelines. They are heavily armed, highly intelligent, and will always be the most dangerous threat in any raid.

• Viktor Vance: Chief Engineer & Locomotive Conductor
  Veteran train engineer who maintains the NightRunner's engine through mechanical ingenuity, jury-rigged parts, and unyielding grit.
• Dr. Elena Rostova: Astrophysicist & Lead Researcher
  Former observatory scientist researching the cosmic origins of the perpetual darkness, searching for ways to reignite the sun.
• Jackson 'Reaper': Tactical Squad Commander
  Stoic mercenary combat specialist who leads perilous off-train scavenging raids into infested underground bunkers.
• The Goliath Behemoth: Mutated Apex Abomination
  Massive mutated titan towering over the railway tracks, capable of derailing carriages with its bone-plated crushing fists.

• The Extraction Raid: PvPvE Raid
  The core gameplay loop. Deploy into a quantum-unstable zone, harvest Active Matter, loot weapons from dead players, and reach an extraction point before the zone collapses.
• Syndicate Turf War: Fierce PvP
  Intense, dedicated PvP battles where heavily armed operative syndicates fight directly over control of massive, passive sources of Active Matter.
• Anomaly Investigation: PvE Exploration
  Venture deep into the cryptic science labs to encounter eerie, SCP-inspired objects and gather the Replicator recipes necessary to upgrade your base arsenal.

• The Breach at Deadwood Gorge: Trestle Bridge Siege
  Defend the stalled locomotive on a high railway bridge, repair the boiler steam line, and fend off aerial mutant attacks.
• Infiltration of Bunker Omega: Underground Dungeon Raid
  Lead a tactical squad into a pitch-black subterranean research silo, solve environmental security puzzles, and extract prototype weapons.
• The Final Signal Station: Extraction and Apex Boss Defense
  Reroute the main transcontinental track switches at the grand depot while holding off an assault from a colossal mutated behemoth.

The game features robust multiplayer experiences divided into specific raid types. 'PvPvE Raids' allow solo players or small squads to infiltrate unstable zones, fight AI mutants, and simultaneously battle other human players for high-value loot before extracting. 'PvE Raids' offer a more focused challenge against the environment and anomalies. Additionally, there are dedicated 'Fierce PvP Battles' where rival syndicates clash directly over massive, passive sources of Active Matter.

NightRunner centers on cooperative PvE gameplay for 1 to 4 players. Modes include the core 'Transcontinental Run' (a multi-hour expedition where players pick routes, defend their linked personal wagons, and scavenge stops along the way), 'Dungeon Infiltration' (linear off-train squad raids into deep underground bunkers and missile silos without the train, featuring complex environmental puzzles and massive boss monstrosities), and 'Endless Rail Defense' (a wave-based horde survival mode where the train is stationary in a ruined depot while players withstand infinite nocturnal assault waves).

Unlike Gaijin's usual free-to-play model, Active Matter is a premium, buy-to-play title available for $29.99. It features several tiered editions: The Standard Edition includes 25,000 Credits, 300 Prime, and starter gear. The Advanced Edition provides higher starting capital, while the Deluxe Edition unlocks the first Replicator queue expansion, the 'Harpy' Scout drone recipe, and the 'Bouncer' brass knuckles knife. The highest tier is the Elite Squad Edition, designed to outfit a dedicated team from day one.

NightRunner is scheduled to launch on PC via Steam with two primary tiers: The Standard Edition ($34.99 USD) includes the full base game, all launch railway routes, cooperative matchmaking, and access to all future free episodic updates. The Conductor Supporter Edition ($49.99 USD) includes the base game, exclusive cosmetic locomotive skins (such as the 'Black Iron Vanguard' diesel engine and ornate gilded carriage plating), unique character operator uniforms, a digital orchestral horror soundtrack composed by German dark-synth artists, and an interactive digital survivalist field manual detailing enemy weak points and railway blueprints.

The game operates as a live-service extraction shooter, with the developers promising an ever-evolving conflict. New 'doors' (maps) and quantum-unstable zones are slated to open with every major update, introducing fresh biomes, SCP-inspired objects, and unique mutated creatures. The game features daily contracts to earn 'Prime' currency, fueling ongoing engagement and syndicate wars.

The development roadmap outlined by 314 Arts focuses on community feedback gathered from the October 2026 Steam Playtests. Post-launch plans include episodic campaign expansions featuring new railway routes across Europe and North America, player-versus-environment (PvE) seasonal survival leagues with escalating mutators, community-created custom carriage and scenario workshop integration, and hardcore 'Iron Man' extraction modes where lost carriages permanently deplete squad resources.

• Q: Is Active Matter free to play?
  A: No. Unlike many of Gaijin's other titles (like War Thunder), Active Matter is a premium, buy-to-play game with the Standard Edition priced at $29.99.
• Q: What happens when I die?
  A: Active Matter is a hardcore extraction shooter. If you die, you lose all the weapons and gear you brought into the raid, except for items stored safely inside your secure container.
• Q: Can I play solo?
  A: Yes. You can deploy into the quantum-unstable zones entirely solo, but you will be facing high tension as you must navigate both AI mutants and potential squads of enemy players alone.
• Q: What is the 'Time Loop' mechanic?
  A: The time loop serves as the narrative justification for the extraction shooter loop. Whenever you die, you are resurrected at your Syndicate Base, forced to re-enter the zones to harvest more Active Matter to eventually break the cycle.

• Q: What is NightRunner?
  A: NightRunner is an intense 1-4 player cooperative first-person horde survival extraction shooter developed by 314 Arts, blending train defense, deep dungeon exploration, and extraction mechanics.
• Q: How does the train mechanic work?
  A: Players hook up custom carriages to form an armored train, choose roles, and travel through a dark wasteland. During tactical stops, players enter scavenging areas to find weapons, resources, and upgrades while defending the train.
• Q: What happens if a carriage is destroyed?
  A: Losing a carriage does not immediately end the run. The squad can fall back to the next carriage, seal the bulkhead doors, and continue defending until reaching the final extraction depot.
• Q: Can NightRunner be played solo?
  A: Yes, NightRunner fully supports solo play with dynamically scaling horde sizes and AI support systems, as well as 1-4 player online co-op.
• Q: When is the game releasing and how can I play?
  A: NightRunner is scheduled for release on PC via Steam in 2027, with public Steam Playtests commencing in October 2026.

Powered by the Dagor Engine, the game delivers photorealistic military assets contrasted sharply against mind-bending, SCP-inspired surrealism. The visual showcase revolves around the 'Active Matter' anomalies—areas where gravity reverses, architecture folds onto itself like an M.C. Escher painting, and everyday objects (like a rusty Soviet car or a flowering bush) mutate into deadly threats. The lighting engine creates tense, high-contrast environments that perfectly suit the horror-adjacent tone.

Utilizing Unity's High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), NightRunner showcases exceptional dark sci-fi visual realism. Volumetric darkness, pierced only by harsh locomotive searchlights, emergency red flare sticks, and muzzle flashes, creates intense atmospheric contrast. High-resolution PBR textures highlight peeling paint, rust, and bloodstains along carriage walls, while realistic fluid gore and dismemberment physics give every ballistic impact visceral weight.

The audio experience is a massive highlight, featuring a haunting, atmospheric original soundtrack composed by the legendary Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill). The sound design mixes the grounded, terrifyingly loud cracks of realistic gunfire with the surreal, cosmic hum of space-bending anomalies and the guttural shrieks of mutated survivors. Directional audio is critical for pinpointing rival operatives moving through rusty industrial complexes.

Sound design in NightRunner is engineered to elicit dread and claustrophobia. The mechanical rhythm of steel wheels screeching along iron tracks, hissing steam pressure valves, and the distant, gut-wrenching roars of mutant packs echoing across desolate canyons build unrelenting atmosphere. The musical score blends dark ambient industrial soundscapes with pounding, adrenaline-pumping synth-wave and heavy distorted percussion during horde breaches. Dynamic audio ray-tracing allows players to accurately pinpoint mutant footsteps skittering across carriage roofs.

The UI embraces a tactical, immersive design standard for hardcore extraction shooters. Minimal on-screen clutter forces players to rely on situational awareness. Inventory management requires grid-based organization (Tetris-style), emphasizing the weight and space of every weapon, magazine, and piece of scavenged Active Matter. A 'Small Safe Container' allows players to permanently secure a few critical items even if they die in the raid.

The game features a minimalist, immersive diegetic HUD designed to heighten tension. Weapon ammunition counters are displayed directly on weapon magazines or holographic tactical wrist-displays. The train cab features an authentic mechanical instrument panel indicating boiler pressure, carriage structural integrity gauges, route elevation graphs, and track switch signals. Squad health, carriage breach alerts, and extraction timers are cleanly anchored to peripheral viewport corners to preserve situational awareness in pitch-black environments.

As a hardcore extraction shooter, Active Matter is inherently punishing, focusing on high-stakes gameplay where death results in the loss of gear. However, the inclusion of dedicated PvE raids provides a slightly safer environment for newer players to learn the map layouts, mutant behaviors, and gunplay mechanics without the immediate stress of hyper-competitive PvP encounters.

314 Arts has implemented a wide array of accessibility settings: full key-rebinding for mouse, keyboard, and gamepads; adjustable stick deadzones and aim acceleration; an arachnophobia / insectoid creature filter mode; scalable subtitles with directional speaker identifiers; independent sliders for camera bobbing, screenshake, and motion blur; and three comprehensive colorblind presets (Protanopia, Deuteranopia, Tritanopia) that clearly highlight friendly turrets, carriage damage indicators, and interactable loot crates.

• System requirements are rigorously verified against official Steam and Gaijin storefront data. Active Matter utilizes the proprietary Dagor Engine (powering War Thunder and Enlisted), blending large-scale environments with dynamic spatial anomalies and complex multiplayer networking.
• Laptop Performance Note: Extraction shooters are notoriously heavy on CPU and RAM. Laptops will need robust cooling to maintain stable frame rates, as thermal throttling during intense PvP firefights or when physics-bending anomalies spawn can result in fatal input lag and the loss of all your gear.
• Laptop Consideration: G P U T G P: A minimal TGP of 60W is required for 1080p rendering on low settings (e.g., RTX 3050 Mobile). For smooth 60+ FPS on High settings during intense syndicate battles, an 85W+ TGP (RTX 4060 Mobile or higher) is heavily recommended.
• Laptop Consideration: Cooling Thermals: The dynamic rendering of quantum-unstable zones and realistic ballistics require stable CPU and GPU thermals. A cooling pad is strongly recommended to prevent throttling, which can be devastating in a hardcore extraction shooter.
• Laptop Consideration: C P U Power Limits: Set Windows power delivery to 'Performance'. The game is heavily CPU-bound when tracking multiple operatives, AI mutants, and real-time spatial distortions.
• Laptop Consideration: M U X Switch Optimus: Absolutely critical to minimize render latency in a hardcore, low-time-to-kill (TTK) shooter where milliseconds determine survival and gear retention.
• Optimization Detail: Upscaling Tech: Supports NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR. Using upscaling is practically mandatory to maintain 60+ FPS during intense PvP encounters when graphical anomalies bend the space around the player.
• Optimization Detail: Key Settings Impact: Volumetric Fog, Shadow Quality, and Texture Detail heavily impact VRAM. Lowering volumetric effects provides a massive framerate boost in dense, anomaly-heavy areas.
• Game Name: Active Matter

• Powered by Unity High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) with advanced volumetric fog, dynamic dynamic global illumination, and GPU-driven zombie horde instancing. Early pre-alpha playtests require a modern 6-core processor, DirectX 12 compatibility, and an SSD to seamlessly stream world sectors without train transition hitching. Online co-op requires a broadband internet connection.
• Laptop Performance Note: Rendering high-density mutated zombie hordes alongside moving train physics and volumetric searchlights puts continuous strain on mobile hardware. Ensure laptops feature at least 80W to 115W TGP and run on cooling stands with elevated rear exhausts to avoid thermal throttling during multi-wave train defenses.
• Laptop Consideration: G P U T G P: Target 85W-120W+ TGP on mobile GeForce or Radeon GPUs to prevent clock degradation during massive nighttime swarm attacks and explosions.
• Laptop Consideration: Cooling Thermals: Physics-heavy moving carriages and dynamic ragdolls require high sustained multi-core CPU throughput; periodic dust cleaning and active cooling pads are recommended.
• Laptop Consideration: C P U Power Limits: Set Windows Power Delivery to High Performance to ensure continuous high clock speeds during intense 4-player co-op bunker extractions.
• Laptop Consideration: M U X Switch Optimus: Enabling discrete GPU mode via internal MUX switch eliminates internal display latency, vital for landing twitch headshots on charging stalkers.
• Optimization Detail: Upscaling Tech: Supports NVIDIA DLSS 3, AMD FSR 3 with Frame Generation, and Intel XeSS temporal upscaling.
• Optimization Detail: Key Settings Impact: Volumetric Fog Quality, Horde Simulation Density, Dynamic Shadow Resolution, and Screen-Space Reflections have the highest impact on rendering performance.
• Game Name: Night Runner

• Upscaling Tech: Supports NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR. Using upscaling is practically mandatory to maintain 60+ FPS during intense PvP encounters when graphical anomalies bend the space around the player.
• Key Settings Impact: Volumetric Fog, Shadow Quality, and Texture Detail heavily impact VRAM. Lowering volumetric effects provides a massive framerate boost in dense, anomaly-heavy areas.

• Upscaling Tech: Supports NVIDIA DLSS 3, AMD FSR 3 with Frame Generation, and Intel XeSS temporal upscaling.
• Key Settings Impact: Volumetric Fog Quality, Horde Simulation Density, Dynamic Shadow Resolution, and Screen-Space Reflections have the highest impact on rendering performance.

• G P U T G P: A minimal TGP of 60W is required for 1080p rendering on low settings (e.g., RTX 3050 Mobile). For smooth 60+ FPS on High settings during intense syndicate battles, an 85W+ TGP (RTX 4060 Mobile or higher) is heavily recommended.
• Cooling Thermals: The dynamic rendering of quantum-unstable zones and realistic ballistics require stable CPU and GPU thermals. A cooling pad is strongly recommended to prevent throttling, which can be devastating in a hardcore extraction shooter.
• C P U Power Limits: Set Windows power delivery to 'Performance'. The game is heavily CPU-bound when tracking multiple operatives, AI mutants, and real-time spatial distortions.
• M U X Switch Optimus: Absolutely critical to minimize render latency in a hardcore, low-time-to-kill (TTK) shooter where milliseconds determine survival and gear retention.

• G P U T G P: Target 85W-120W+ TGP on mobile GeForce or Radeon GPUs to prevent clock degradation during massive nighttime swarm attacks and explosions.
• Cooling Thermals: Physics-heavy moving carriages and dynamic ragdolls require high sustained multi-core CPU throughput; periodic dust cleaning and active cooling pads are recommended.
• C P U Power Limits: Set Windows Power Delivery to High Performance to ensure continuous high clock speeds during intense 4-player co-op bunker extractions.
• M U X Switch Optimus: Enabling discrete GPU mode via internal MUX switch eliminates internal display latency, vital for landing twitch headshots on charging stalkers.