Icarus: New Release Highlights Genetics, Husbandry, and Lighting Updates
Players of the survival game Icarus have a substantial update to explore as of January 23, 2026. The latest patch, part of the game's ongoing development, introduces a comprehensive suite of new features, refined mechanics, and critical bug fixes.
Overhauled Lighting System
The visual landscape of Icarus is changing with a reworked lighting system. Developers have consolidated multiple wall and ceiling light variants into a single, streamlined item to reduce crafting redundancy. New 'Shroud' and 'Spotlight' items have been added to the Workshop for ambient and directional lighting. To improve inventory management, lights now stack up to 10 and feature more realistic weight values. The 'Single' and 'Basic' lights have been renamed to 'Caged' and 'Bunker' respectively.
Introducing Genetics and Husbandry
A major focus of this update is the introduction of the 'Genetics' and 'Husbandry' features for creatures. The Genetics system allows creatures to possess inheritable genetic attributes and a sex. This enables breeding mechanics that can enhance creature traits over time and introduces skin variation for unique visual appearances. The Husbandry system enables the breeding and raising of animals, including Chickens, Sheep, Cows, Moas, and Buffalo.
Specific mechanics have been implemented for these creatures. Fertilization requires a craftable serum, and females enter a gestation phase lasting 1200 seconds, with progress displayed in the UI. Newly introduced creatures include Roosters, Chicks, Rams, and Lambs. Juveniles inherit attributes from both parents, allowing for selective breeding. Additionally, females can be milked, and the update has fixed an issue where full cows were unable to be milked after reloading.
New Tools and Creature Balance
Survivors will find new Sickles with harvesting effects-Obsidian, Cold Steel, and Miasmic-available in the Workshop. The update also includes a balance pass on XP for a number of creatures and addresses several environmental hazards. Spiders no longer spawn at a cave if a player is within 50m, and Cave Spiders now despawn during daylight hours. Poison Resistance now affects the Scorpion's poison DoT modifier, and the poison chance and damage have been reduced.
Other improvements include the Forge providing heat when active, added bulk recipes for crafting shotgun slugs, and a 50% chance of dropping Electronics from Drones. The compass HUD element now updates to match the current viewport camera rotation.
Comprehensive Bug Fixes
The patch addresses a variety of issues to improve overall gameplay stability. Bugs such as the woolly mammoth mount incorrectly dirtying navigation and the woolly mammoth stomp attack not being granted extra damage when called from a client have been resolved. The issue where getting back on a mount while inside a cave could remove the cave debuff/screen effects has also been fixed.
For more details on the update, players can visit the official Steam Community announcement.
